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Journalism of Courage
Indian teenager Praggnanandhaa produced one of the biggest upsets of the FIDE World Cup after eliminating Hikaru Nakamura via tiebreakers on Friday.
After the two classical games were unable to provide a result, Praggnanandhaa and Nakamura were playing tiebreakers on Friday. While the result in itself was astounding, what made the moment special was that former world champion Magnus Carlsen got up in the middle of his own tiebreaker with Vincent Keymer and walked to Praggnanandhaa to congratulate him.
After Carlsen managed to defeat German teenager Keymer, he was asked what he had told the Indian.
“My chess club, Offerspill, have a camp going on right now for young, talented players in Stockholm, Sweden. Ramesh, Pragg’s personal coach, is the main coach at that camp. One of my friends who attended it told me that Ramesh was always telling them ‘be like Pragg, be like Pragg’. So I told Pragg that we all want to be like him today,” Carlsen revealed.
“This is one of my best days for sure. I’m very happy, I don’t know how to express it. It was a good day,” said Praggnanandhaa R, who turned 18 on Thursday.
Carlsen booked a clash with Vasyl Ivanchuk while India’s Gukesh will play China’s Wang Hao. Should Carlsen and Gukesh both win their matches, they will meet in the next round.
Meanwhile, Ian Nepomniachtchi will take on Vidit Gujrathi after quelling the spirited challenge of Nihal Sarin in the pre-quarters. Arjun Erigaisi will take on Grandelius Nils. Pragg will take on Berkes Ferenc, with the winner facing the winner of Arjun vs Grandelius encounter.
