The Indian cricket fraternity on Thursday took to social media to congratulate young chess player R Praggnanandhaa for finishing runner-up in the International Chess Federation (FIDE) World Cup final.
World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen defeated Grandmaster R Praggnanandha of India to win the International Chess Federation World Cup title in Baku, Azerbaijan on Thursday.
Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar expressed his happiness over the performance of the player and encouraged him to chase his dreams and make the entire country proud.
Sachin tweeted, “Congratulations on an incredible tournament, @rpragchess! Keep chasing your dreams and making India proud.”
Indian spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who has represented India in chess at the international level, also encouraged the young talent to keep his head high after finishing runner-up.
Chahal tweeted, “Keep your head high Praggnanandha. The whole country is proud of you @rpragchess.”
Hardik Pandya also extended his best wishes. “You have made the entire country proud @rpragchess! And your story is so inspiring. My best wishes for whatever the future holds for you.”
Indian bowling all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin praised Praggnanandhan’s performance.
“Prag. You made us proud like always. #praggnanandha@rpragchess,” tweeted the spinner.
The Norwegian chess grandmaster won the first game of the rapid chess tie-breaker with the black pieces and managed to draw the second game with the white pieces. Tiebreaker rapid chess is played in a quicker-time control format. Praggnanandhaa fought hard but was let down by Carlsen calling on all his big match experience when it mattered the most.
Earlier on Wednesday, Praggnanandhan and Carlsen drew both their games of classical chess.
Praggnanandhaa had to be content with the runner-up finish of the 2023 FIDE World Cup, but will take hope from the fact that he has qualified for the FIDE Candidates Tournament.
The 2024 Candidates Tournament will be an eight-player chess tournament scheduled to be held from 2 April to 25 April 2024 in Toronto, Canada. The winner of the tournament will become the challenger for the 2024 World Chess Championship match.
Praggnanandhaa had a very good tournament, where he defeated World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura in a tie-breaker, before defeating World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana in the final.
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