Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa is an Indian chess prodigy and grandmaster. He is the fifth youngest person to earn this title. At age 16, he became the youngest person to beat the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen.
Pragnanandhaa started learning chess before he was four years old by watching his older sister Vaishali, another grandmaster. He was born and raised in one of the world’s popular chess capitals, Chennai. In 2014, Praggnanandhaa began learning from B. R Ramesh, a Commonwealth Games champion and the winner of the British Chess Championship. Ramesh is known to be a masterful theoretician of the game. His chess puzzles are sought after by many students. This is why Pragnanandhaa is said to have immense tactical prowess.
Pragnanandhaa earned the FIDE Masters title when he was seven by winning the 2013 World Youth Chess Championship. In 2019, Praggnanandhaa became the second youngest player in the world to receive an Elo rating of above 2600.
Developed by a Hungarian-American developer by the same name, the Elo system works on the basis of zero-sum games. Everytime a player wins a game, points are transferred from their opponent. A player with a higher Elo rating, beating someone of a lower Elo rating initiates a transfer of a few points. Whereas the reverse leads to a larger transfer of points. As of 2022, Praggnanandhaa has a rating of 2642. Chess players who have a ranking of 2600 or above are eligible to play in World Championships.
