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Praggnanandhaa explains why players like Magnus Carlsen and Nakamura are moving away from classical chess

Praggnanandhaa has won three tournaments already this year, including the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee in February and the Superbet Chess Classic Romania in May earlier in the year.

Praggnanandhaa won the title against an elite 10-player Masters field in Tashkent that comprised heavy-hitters like Ian Nepomniachtchi and Arjun Erigaisi, besides the Uzbek quartet of Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Shamsiddin Vokhidov. (File)

Praggnanandhaa won the UzChess Cup title against an elite 10-player Masters field in Tashkent that comprised heavy-hitters like Ian Nepomniachtchi and Arjun Erigaisi. (File)

R Praggnanandhaa has a simple explanation for why veteran stars of the sport like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura are gradually easing off from playing classical tournaments in chess: the mental and physical exhaustion that comes as a part of playing the format. Classical chess is the most prestigious format of the sport, but a classical game can drag on for seven hours at a stretch.

“It’s difficult to play classical chess because everyone is well prepared… the opening preparation part is huge in classical chess,” Praggnanandhaa said. “If you compare classical to freestyle, you don’t have to prepare before a game (in freestyle which goes by many names like Fischer Random and Chess 960), while in classical chess, you’re basically forced to. I don’t think anyone actually enjoys that process, but you’re forced to and you have to have a plan for everything. That requires a lot of effort.”

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Carlsen, who has become a poster boy for Freestyle Chess these days, only plays classical chess at Norway Chess, which is his home tournament. He went as far as indicating that he was ready to walk away from the longest format of the sport recently after a particularly bruising defeat to world champion Gukesh at Norway Chess recently.

“When you play a lot of such (classical) tournaments, then your energy is also (drained)… I mean you can also be mentally and physically exhausted. So all these things happen. I think that’s the reason why everyone prefers other formats. I myself like freestyle much more because of the fact that you don’t have to prepare before a game. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to work on (our) chess. We enjoy working on chess. But the fact that you have to (put endless hours in preparations)… you’re forced to do before the game like three-four hours of preparation, then it’s not really something that everyone enjoys. So yeah, I like freestyle. I like rapid and it’s a bit more than classical for sure. But I think classical is still the main thing,” Pragg added.

Magnus is a five-time world champion, but walked away from the throne rather than defend his crown a couple of years back. The man behind him in world rankings, American Grandmaster Nakamura, has also played fewer classical tournaments off late, and instead focused on freestyle, rapid and blitz formats.

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READ MORE | Susan Polgar on Gukesh: ‘Some doubted his worthiness as World Champion… written off as a bottom feeder at Zagreb’

Praggnanandhaa has won three tournaments already this year, including the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee in February and the Superbet Chess Classic Romania in May earlier in the year.

READ MORE | Garry Kasparov explains why playing Gukesh is ‘like playing a computer’: Have to beat him 5 times… he has many lives in each game

The 19-year old also gained 12 rating points, thanks to his performance at the UzChess Cup tournament in Tashkent, which helped him climb to the world no 4 spot for the first time in his career in the latest FIDE ratings list released by the global governing body of chess on July 1.