R Praggnanandhaa Becomes India’s Number One Chess Player 

18-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa became the highest-ranked Indian chess player after defeating World champion Ding Liren at the 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. He achieved this feat on 16th January 2024 in a match that took place in the Netherlands. Before Praggnanandhaa, the first rank belonged to Chess Master Vishwanathan Anand. 

Born in 2005 in Chennai, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa started playing chess at the age of five and became a Chess master at ten. In 2018, he became the youngest grandmaster in India and the second-youngest in the world at the age of twelve. 

Vaishali Rameshbabu, Praggnanadhaa’s elder sister, is also an Indian chess grandmaster, making him and his sister the first-ever brother-sister duo to achieve the grandmaster title.

Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar took to social media platform X to congratulate Praggnanandhaa. A part of his tweet read- “At the young age of 18, you haven’t just dominated the game but also risen to become India’s top-rated player”. 

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa has made a name for himself in the world of chess, not only in India but across the globe. He became the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to reach the final of the Chess World Cup. Previously, he secured the second position in the prestigious 2023 FIDE World Cup.