It’s time to Pragg: The 21-year-old became the first Indian to win Grand Chess Tour title

Move first, think later. Pattern recognition, intuition, create confusion, strategise, psych the opponent… It might sound like 007’s standard gambling manual, but it is actually Speed Chess 101.

As chess increasingly finds itself divided over the status of classical game versus the thrill of rapid and blitz, R Praggnanandhaa just gave a lesson in the latter. The 21-year-old beat 34-year-old defending champion and world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to become the first the Indian to win the Grand Chess Tour (GCT).

After a gruelling second half of the tour — fourth and fifth legs stretched till August 20 — world No. 12 Praggnanandhaa began the GCT Finals with an easy 19-9 penultimate round win against world No. 5 Vincent Keymer. He dominated the classical and rapid rounds 9-3 and 8-0, before Keymer won the blitz round 6-2.


His ultimate test in St. Louis, host of the month-long GCT, was against ‘The Machine’. Praggnanandhaa had already underlined his classical credentials this year when he became the first player in 18 years to beat world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen twice in classical chess at the same tournament. What Veselin Topalov did in 2008, the Indian did at Norway Chess this year to become the first Indian to win the tournament that features a unique classical-with armageddon system.

At the GCT, however, it was his performance in rapid and blitz that kept him in the race. After finishing tied fifth at the Super Chess Classic Romania in May, he picked up valuable tour points at Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia in July. He then started the US leg of GCT with a maiden Rapid & Blitz title and 13 points. At the classical Sinquefield Cup that followed, he turned in another brilliant performance, but lost the top spot to world No. 6 American Wesley So in armageddon. In the final, it again came down to rapid and blitz for Praggnanandhaa as Italian-American Caruana — third highest-rated player in history after Gary Kasparov and Carlsen — looked all set to take a third GCT trophy home. Having left his aggressive days of youth behind, Caruana now relies on a more calculated and technically precise game and openings. He took the opening classical portion of the match 9-3 (6 points for winning, 3 for draw).

When it came to quick imagination in the following rounds, it was time for the youth to shine. And to ensure that the birthday celebrations that might have been on hold on August 10 on account of the tour would only multiply upon returning home with a title — and over $400,000.

Praggnanandhaa’s flipping of the script — ‘start by winning the rapid portion’ — turned out to be better than what he manages with an omelette or a wrap. He won both the rounds for eight points and an 11-9 lead, wresting control of the proceedings from Caruana. He knew he didn’t ‘need to actually win the blitz’, so he just persisted and took two games, split the points 4-4 and finish the ‘big tour’ as champion.

Top names like Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura have made no secret of their dislike of the exhaustion that comes with classical chess. But much like cricket, where T20 drives entertainment, it is the romanticism of Tests and the nostalgia of whites that keep the long format alive, even as attendances in the stands dwindle.

In chess, the faster formats attract a large number of dedicated and casual audiences on streaming platforms. The classical version, much like Test cricket, allows for longer planning and draws. The inaugural Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in November, hence, is an experiment to identify the world’s most complete chess player by combining fast classic (not classic!) and rapid and blitz into a single championship.

While Carlsen, the reigning rapid and blitz champion, will compete in this FIDE-approved idea, the reigning classical champion, India’s D Gukesh — now world No. 31 amid a difficult run of form — hasn’t confirmed yet. Praggnanandhaa will join world No. 9 Arjun Erigaisi and sibling R Vaishali for the Budapest Pilot after the Olympiad in Samarkand in September.

And, going by his year so far, format should be the least of the Chennai lad’s worries.