Credit: Twitter
R Praggnanandhaa, who created history by becoming the second only Indian to enter the FIDE World Cup final, achieved his career-high ranking. The 18-year-old went down to undefeated 5-time World Champion and current world number 1, Magnus Carlsen in the summit clash of the tournament. With his advancement to the finale of the tournament, Praggnanandhaa entered the top 20 of the world rankings.
The Chennai-born grandmaster took down the former World Number 3, Italian-American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana along with World Number 2, the American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in the tournament. With this, his ranking improved and now India’s teenage chess hero sits in the top 20 of world rankings.
After finishing second in the marquee tournament, the young Indian star said, "Today didn't unfold in my favour, but that's a common occurrence in sports. Magnus Carlsen stands as the world's finest player, and I must continue honing my chess skills to reach that pinnacle. It's the direction I'm heading in, and improvement is key. We're both truly fatigued; enduring a month-long event drained our energy. Despite our exhaustion, we both attempted to rally ourselves and compete. However, he managed to outperform me today."
Notably, Praggnanandhaa entered into the tournament as world number 29, and he is now world number 20 with an ELO rating of a career-high 2727.2.
