‘Such a crazy day’: R Praggnanandhaa

The Indian juggernaut in international chess remained unstoppable as Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa fought through exhaustion and nerves to defeat world champion D Gukesh in a clash of compatriots to clinch the Tata Steel Masters title for the first time in his prolific career The bespectacled 19yearold from Chennai a city that has become the cradle of Indian chess came from behind to upstage the 18yearold World No 3 21 in the tiebreaker of the eventrsquos 87th edition here on SundayTied on 85 pointsThis was after both players ended up tied on 85 points after losing their 13thround games While Gukesh lost to fellow Indian Arjun Erigaisi Praggnanandhaa went down to Vincent Keymer of Germany In the tiebreaker there was huge drama typical of two young players looking to win each and every game they played in the tournament as they played the tiebreak ldquoI am still shaking it was such a crazy day I donrsquot know how to express I didnrsquot really expect to win Somehow things went my wayrdquo Praggnanandhaa told the official tournament website after his triumphAsked if it was the most tense day of his chess career which began when he was a mere two years of age ldquoToday is more special because I won the tournament Definitely most stressful dayrdquo he responded The teenager became the first Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win the title Anand won it thrice 2003 2004 and 2006 individually when it was called the Corus Chess Tournament named on the title sponsor of that time The legend also shared the honours twice 1989 and 1998 in its earliest form of Hoogovens TournamentPraggnanandhaa faced the Benoni with reversed colours in the first game of the tiebreak and it seemed like he had equalised easily in the middle game However Gukesh had other thoughts as he kept trying and won thanks to a blunder by Praggnanandhaa that cost him a full rook In a mustwin second game of the tiebreaker Praggnanandhaa employed the Trompowsky opening and this time Gukesh could claim a slight advantage with his black piecesldquoI was just trying to relax to rest a bit It was a very difficult game Against Vincent I didnrsquot play anywhere close to the level I was playing here I should buy something for Arjun At some point I thought Gukesh was betterrdquo the former world youth champion quipped ldquoFor sure this win it is the highlight When I came here I wanted to win but the field was very strong I didnrsquot really think about it much until yesterdayrdquo he added ldquoI am completely exhausted I was also quite tired I just want to get some rest nowrdquoDuring the tiebreak by just keeping his position together Praggnanandhaa patiently waited and capitalised on an unforced error from Gukesh to first knock down a pawn and then his technical abilities were enough to see the normal blitz games through with a 11 scoreThis took the match into sudden death where Praggnanandhaa drew white and once again Gukesh was better with some imaginative play on the queen side that netted him a pawn The sudden death had a time control of two minutes and thirty seconds for white against three for blackGukesh errs at the endJust while the position looked completely drawn and another game was on the cards Gukesh lost control in the battle of nerves and first lost a pawn then his last remaining knight Praggnanandhaa showed perfect technique to take the full point and his maiden victory at the MastersFor Gukesh this was the second year running when he tied for first position and lost the tiebreaker In the previous edition Gukesh had lost to Chinese Wei YiThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever