India's 19-year-old chess grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa recently won a spectacular victory by defeating Gukesh in the final match of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Prague said that the performances of his teammates Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi motivated him to work even harder.
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament was held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. In the final, Praggnanandhaa defeated Gukesh, who became the world champion last year, in a close contest. By doing so, Praggnanandhaa has become the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win the mega tournament.
After this spectacular tournament win, Praggnanandhaa was given a grand welcome in Chennai. Prague reflected on his tournament win and admitted that the recent performances of his fellow chess players have motivated him to put in more effort. The 2024 season was quite below-average for Praggnanandhaa.
"2024 didn't end well for me. So I worked hard for this tournament. I'm happy to start this year so well. Gukesh also played well. It was an exciting tiebreaker. Other Indian chess players like Gukesh winning the World Championship or Arjun Erigaisi crossing the Elo rating in 2800 Classical Chess, motivated me to work harder. Another reason was that I wasn't happy with my game. I wanted to play better. So I continued the practice," Praggnanandhaa said.