17-year-old GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa joins the 2700 clube of 17 years
Author: Maria Fragaki
17-year-old Indian chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa broke into 2700 after beating Sanan Sjugirov and Parham Maghsoodloo in the first two rounds of the Geza Hetenyi Memorial at Budapest, Hungary to rank 6th in India.
GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa aka “Pragg” is currently playing at the Geza Hetenyi Memorial at Budapest, Hungary and in the first two rounds he beat Sanan Sjugirov (2699) and Parham Maghsoodloo (2719) to cross 2700 in classical chess. With this live rating, Pragg is 6th in India, 5th in the Junior ranking list, and 34th in the World! He is also the 8th Indian in the history of chess to cross the 2700 ranking barrier, joining Vishy Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran, Pentala Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, Adiban Baskaran, Gukesh Dommaraju, and Arjun Erigaisi.
Recently at the Global Chess League 2023, Magnus Carlsen has said about Pragg: “Well, we have this one guy who wins every single game. That kinda helps… Pragg has been the absolute star. Not only the fact that he wins games, but the way he wins them. It seems like he wins with class”! Indeed, the 17-year-old GM has finished the event undefeated, with 7 wins, and 29 total points in 10 matches to be crowned the king of the series!
IM Sagar Shah who commented the last game of Pragg against Maghsoodloo said that whenever we see Pragg in front of the board he seems happy and in great spirits, which is really wonderful to see. We share his hopes of Pragg challenging the World Champion one day and we celebrate together with the chess community this big achievement!
Twitter congratulates Pragg
