Round 6, Tata Steel Chess India blitz, 2018. A 13-year-old Praggnanandhaa sat across five-time world champion 48-year-old Viswanathan Anand. It was the first time they met over the board in a tournament and this battle of generations is easily one of the most-watched chess clips on YouTube.
At 12 years, 10 months and 13 days, Praggnanandhaa had become the second-youngest GM that year after Sergey Karjakin. By the time the Tata Steel tournament took place in Kolkata, Praggnanandhaa had slipped to third-youngest. Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov snuck into second spot. Interestingly, Praggnanandhaa’s first win in Kolkata came against Karjakin.
Back then, even though just 13, Praggnanandhaa put up a gutsy play with White. Anand managed to douse any threat and went on to defeat Hikaru Nakamura in the playoff to win the Tata Steel blitz title. This was less than a year after Anand had won the world rapid title. Anand was an active player then and India had around 54 GMs. Today, Anand is semi-retired, mentors the likes of Praggnananadhaa and Gukesh and India’s count of GMs today stands at 85.
