Another world champion from India: Pranav Venkatesh becomes World Junior Chess Champion

Pranav is thus the seventh world junior champion from India, if both the open and girls categories are considered. Viswanathan Anand was India’s first world junior chess champion, winning the crown in 1987.

Between Anand and Pranav, there were Koneru Humpy (world junior girls champion in 2001), Pentala Harikrishna (2004), Abhijeet Gupta (2008), Harika Dronavalli (world junior girls champion in 2008) and Divya Deshmukh (world junior girls champion in 2024).

Just like illustrious predecessors Gukesh and Praggnanadhaa, Pranav is a product of the Vellamal Institute in Chennai and is a fellow at the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA), pioneered by Anand, the five-time world champion.

Since the pandemic, the WACA programme, modelled on the legendary Botvinnik School of Chess and the Samford Fellowship, has taken some of India’s best talents under its wings.

“I thought Pranav was just gifted. You could see it in his games and also a couple of people I consult pointed this out to me so that was useful confirmation,” Anand told The Indian Express on Friday while explaining why he had handpicked Pranav for the WACA programme.

Anand said that there was a phase where he had to arrange for extra sessions for Pranav at WACA.

“He had a run where he was struggling. Or let’s say, he was not going as fast as he might have liked. But recently, he’s found more momentum again and I think that’s a very good sign. I gave him a lot of extra classes in WACA (during his slow down) because I wanted to see if that would get him going again and help him rediscover his form,” Anand said.

Carlsen’s ‘buddy’

One of Pranav’s breakout performances came at the European Club Cup 2023, where he played in World No.1 Magnus Carlsen’s team Offerspill Sjakklubb. That tournament saw Carlsen tasting a victory in a team setting. For Carlsen, winning the European Club Cup title in 2023 had broken what seemed like a rare jinx on the 64 squares: he just could not win team events, even when he had Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi as teammate at the SG Alpine Warriors in the first season of the Global Chess League.

But it was Pranav’s decisive victory over Jorden van Foreest, who was representing Superchess, in the penultimate round that helped Carlsen’s Offerspill Sjakklubb stay in the race to win the title.

“Pranav is buddy and buddy is Pranav,” Carlsen had tweeted after that win from Pranav. It was not direct praise, but more of a hat-tip to his talent by making a reference to the nickname (‘buddy’) that the teenager had been given by the Internet.
https://twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen/status/1710699452388819412
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

To underline his talent, that year also saw Pranav defeating Magnus Carlsen in an online Titled Tuesday game, which made waves in chess circles.

Pranav’s performance at the European Club Cup in 2023 also impressed Anand, who was playing for Superchess at that event.

“I’ve had multiple interactions over the years with Pranav and one thing which stood out was his resourcefulness. He’s very tenacious, he’s able to find hidden resources in difficult positions as well and that makes him a very tough player to play against. Particularly in the European Club Cup two years ago, we all realised how difficult it was to put him away and his team success I think definitely owed to the fact that he converted some really horrible positions,” Anand said.
https://twitter.com/vishy64theking/status/1898028392811000142
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

That European Club Cup event became a springboard for the teenager. Pranav has had significant results in his fledgling career since, winning the Challengers event at the Chennai Grand Masters event in November 2024 in a field that had players of the calibre of Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Raunak Sadhwani, Leon Luke Mendonca and Karthikeyan Murali. He, in fact, defeated Harika, Vaishali, and Karthikeyan at that event.

In December last year as well, he claimed double golds in the Under-18 category at the World Youth Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship, held in Terme Catez, Slovenia.

Pranav’s ascendency to the World Junior Championship throne came on the same day as Aravindh Chithambaram won the Prague Masters title.

“Obviously, we were very optimistic about Indian chess some months ago. But if players like Aravindh and Pranav Venkatesh join the party, then of course that’s great for us,” said Anand.