Pragg-matic with ambition intact

R Praggnanandhaa once again stole a march over D Gukesh in an elite classical tournament this year. At Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands, he needed Erigaisi Arjun to win the last game of the classical phase before beating world champion Gukesh in tiebreak playoffs. But at the Global Chess Tour (GCT) Romania tournament, Pragg left his more celebrated compatriot far behind. It was not a high-scoring tournament. World No. 7 Pragg (Elo 2758) needed just two wins (over Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Wesley So) in nine games to be in a three-way tie and then proved himself to be better than Frenchmen Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Lagrave in blitz playoff. He had lost all three games, including one against Gukesh, in last year’s four-way playoff in the same tournament. Though Pragg reached the 2023 World Cup final and defeated Magnus Carlsen multiple times in speed chess, Gukesh and Arjun made more definitive progress in classical chess last year. Pragg is turning a new leaf now with solidity and pragmatism without compromising much on an ambitious approach. Former seven-time national champion Pravin Thipsay told TOI: “He played speculative chess in 2023 and thereabouts. The Candidates 2024 was a great opportunity which made him fully understand that speculative play can’t be the strategy in a classical game. He now plays more accurate openings and consistently follows the strategic ideas in the sharp positions he chooses.” With two defeats and eight wins at Wijk and Bucharest in 22 games among elite rivals, what is he doing differently this year? “Nothing specific,” Pragg said. “I am trying to be more ambitious whenever I play, trying to go for tournament wins. Thanks to Ramesh sir too, when things were not going my way last year, we were trying to improve on things. I think we are seeing the results of that hard work.”