Chess | Red-hot Praggnanandhaa vital to India’s fortunes at the Olympiad

Fortunes in rapid chess change faster than the patterns of this monsoon. They change even faster in blitz chess.

So, the way R. Praggnanandhaa dominated the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz in the United States last week is truly remarkable. He led from the start to the finish. And won the title by a margin of 1.5 points from the second-placed Javokhir Sindarov, a strong rival from the time they were kids.

The Chennai Grandmaster, who turned 21 on Monday, won the blitz event with a round to spare, in fact. And he was in the lead on all five days of the tournament. That is not very usual, especially if your name is not Magnus Carlsen.

Well, Carlsen, the world’s best player for a decade and a half, wasn’t there at Saint Louis. He was very much there though at the Norway Chess, held at his hometown, Oslo, a couple of months ago.

Three big titles

That tournament, too, was won by Praggnanandhaa, after beating Carlsen twice. So, within a space of two months, he has won three prestigious titles in strong tournaments in three different formats. Yes, a bit like scoring hundreds in Test, ODI and T20I cricket in quick succession.

He is indeed playing some of the best chess of his career. With the Chess Olympiad just a little over a month away, his brilliant form could not have come at a better time for the Indian team, which will be defending the historic title it won at Budapest two years ago.

With the World champion D. Gukesh still far from his best, India needs Praggnanandhaa to score heavily at Samarkand, where the reigning champion could face strong challenges from the host, Uzbekistan, which includes the likes of top players like Sindarov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

After winning the World Cup in Goa — a career breakthrough — Sindarov had said that Uzbekistan and India would be contesting frequently for major chess titles in the years ahead. In fact, we will see one such battle, Gukesh against Sindarov, at the World title match in Geneva later this year.

Sindarov had earned that right by winning the Candidates tournament in Cyprus four months ago in most emphatic style. Praggnandhaa, on the other hand, had one of his most forgettable tournaments, finishing seventh in a field of eight.

But, like a true champion, he has bounced back. In some style.