Latest news with #2ndUzChessCup
The Hindu
18 hours ago
- Sport
- The Hindu
Praggnanandhaa joins Magnus Carlsen at Team Liquid before Esports World Cup 2025
R. Pragnanandhaa has joined Magnus Carlsen at Team Liquid, a Dutch esports organisation, a week before the Esports World Cup begins in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Online chess is making its debut at the second edition of the Esports World Cup, and the Indian grandmaster is the third member of a team that has World No. 1 Carlsen and four-time U.S. Champion Fabiano Caruana. The announcement came a day after Praggnanandhaa won the 2nd UzChess Cup, and he becomes the third Indian in contention to secure a spot in the World Cup finals. So far, only Arjun Erigaisi (Generation Gaming) has a confirmed spot while Nihal Sarin and Aravindh Chithambaram from Indian esports organisation, S8UL, will look to seal a berth in the Last Chance Qualifiers, along with Praggnanandhaa. List of confirmed chess players at Esports World Cup 2025 finals: Magnus Carlsen (Team Liquid) Fabiano Caruana (Team Liquid) Hikaru Nakamura (Team Falcons) Alireza Firouzja (Team Falcons) Arjun Erigaisi (Generation Gaming) Ian Nepomniachtchi (Aurora) Nodirbek Abdusattorov (NAVI) Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Team Vitality) Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Twisted Minds) Wei Yi (Weibo) Vladislav Artemiev (Team Spirit) Vladimir Fedoseev. 'Before chess conquered the world, it was born in India. For centuries, India has shaped the game. Now, it shapes the future. Praggnanandhaa R. carries that legacy forward — and today, he joins ours. Welcome to Team Liquid. The future of chess starts here,' the esports organisation wrote on X. This is not the first time Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen are in the same team, with the two previously featuring as teammates in Global Chess League in consecutive seasons, in 2023 and 2024.
Indian Express
a day ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
Praggnanandhaa to join Magnus Carlsen's Team Liquid ahead of chess' Esports World Cup debut
A day after R Praggnanandhaa won the 2nd UzChess Cup, the 19-year-old from Chennai was announced as the newest member of Team Liquid, a move that sees him join forces with the likes of five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Praggnanandhaa thus becomes the fourth Indian chess player to sign up with an esports franchise with chess making its debut at the Esports World Cup soon to be staged in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from July 29 to August 1. Before Praggnanandhaa, his close friend Arjun Erigaisi was snapped up by Generation Gaming (Gen.G) while Nihal Sarin and Aravindh Chithambaram have been named on the roster of India-based S8UL. So far Arjun is the only player to have assured himself a spot in the Esports World Cup, which has spots for only 16 players. Both Carlsen and Caruana are also among the 12 grandmasters who have qualified. The others are Hikaru Nakamura (Team Falcons), Alireza Firouzja (Team Falcons), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Aurora), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (NAVI), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Team Vitality), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Twisted Minds), Wei Yi (Weibo), Vladislav Artemiev (Team Spirit), Vladimir Fedoseev. Praggnanadhaa will represent Team Liquid for the Last Chance Qualifiers which will see some heavy-hitters in action trying to secure one of the four remaining spots. This includes former world champion Ding Liren (LGD), Wesley So (NAVI), Oleksandr Bortnyk (NAVI), Anish Giri (Team Secret) and Daniil Dubov (Team Spirit). 'Before chess conquered the world, it was born in India. For centuries, India has shaped the game. Now, it shapes the future. Praggnanandhaa R. carries that legacy forward — and today, he joins ours. Welcome to Team Liquid. The future of chess starts here,' the team posted on its X handle announcing the move. Before chess conquered the world, it was born in India. For centuries, India has shaped the game. Now, it shapes the future. Praggnanandhaa R. carries that legacy forward — and today, he joins ours. Welcome to Team Liquid. The future of chess starts here. 💙🇮🇳 Pragg உன்னை… — Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) June 28, 2025 In response, Praggnanandhaa posted: 'Super excited to be part of Team Liquid! From India to the world, let's take chess to the next level together!' Carlsen's admiration for Praggnanandhaa is well documented. During the FIDE World Cup in 2023, where Praggnanandhaa had ended up reaching the final before losing to the world no 1 from Norway, Carlsen had famously patted the Indian teenager on the back and exchanged a few words while still in the middle of his own game after the boy from Chennai had upset Hikaru Nakamura via tiebreakers. Carlsen had revealed that at his club Offerspill in Norway, Pragg's coach RB Ramesh had used the phrase 'Be Like Pragg' while explaining to young players the level of dedication they needed to have to succeed. Carlsen had in turn reminded Praggnanandhaa about the 'Be Like Pragg' catchphrase when he had defeated Nakamura. Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa were also teammates in the first season of the Global Chess League. Team Liquid started off as a StarCraft clan in 2000, and then grew into a championship-winning team. It has three training facilities around the world, at Los Angeles, São Paulo and Utrecht (The Netherlands). The Esports World Cup will be an event where the world's biggest esports clubs compete across 24 of the most popular esports titles. For the first time, the World Cup will also feature chess, which will be played online. The first edition of the Esports World Cup was held in 2024 and saw teams compete over eight weeks. The Esports World Cup 2025 is set to be the largest multi-title esports event in history which is expected to have at least 2,000 players and 200 teams competing for a combined prize pool of $70 million (approx. Rs 602 crore). Chess was also included as an Esports at the Khelo India Youth Games 2025 in Patna.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
RB Ramesh explains what led to R Praggnanandhaa's barnstorming 2025: Playing ‘risky' chess, more variety of openings and second coming out of shadows
There will be a new India No. 1 in town when the official chess ratings list comes out in a few days after R Praggnanandhaa snatched victory at the uber-competitive 2nd UzChess Cup in Tashkent. The win came after some drama where the Indian found himself in a Mexican standoff with two Uzbek players from the country's golden generation. Pragg won the title against an elite 10-player Masters field in Tashkent that comprised heavy-hitters like Ian Nepomniachtchi, Arjun Erigaisi, Richard Rapport, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Aravindh Chithambaram besides the Uzbek quartet of Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Shamsiddin Vokhidov. After nine rounds of classical chess, there were three players locked at the top with 5.5 points each: Pragg, Abdusattorov and Sindarov. Pragg had started the event brightly, but had a mid-event stumble with back-to-back defeats against Maghsoodloo and Rapport (which is a candidate for one of the games of the year). Pragg started Friday needing a victory with black pieces. He did exactly that: delivering a 49-move takedown of Abdusattorov in the classical format to ensure a three-way battle for the title via the faster tiebreaks. In the tiebreaks, each of the three players needed to play six games (three against each opponent) with three minutes on the clock. It was after that mayhem that Praggnanandhaa emerged as the winner. Wrapped up the #UzChessCup Masters with a win in the final round and wins in tie breaks. Tiebreaks were crazy indeed. Grateful for all the support that I have received so far. Onto my next challenge to Croatia. — Praggnanandhaa (@rpraggnachess) June 27, 2025 'Tiebreaks were crazy indeed,' posted Pragg on his X, before adding: 'Onto my next challenge in Croatia.' The UzChess Cup also helped Pragg leap ahead of his compatriots like Arjun, Gukesh and Aravindh in one of the most heavily-contested battles in the sport at the moment: the race to be India's top-ranked player, a position which comes with other perks, like invitations to elite tournaments like Norway Chess. By beating Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa now has a live rating of 2778.3, which also propels him to World No. 4. He leaves behind Gukesh (live rating of 2776.6) and Arjun (2775.7). The UzChess Cup marks Praggnanandhaa's third title of the year. He won the extremely-competitive Tata Steel event in Wijk aan Zee (where he overpowered newly-crowned world champion Gukesh in a tense tiebreak) and the Grand Chess Tour's Superbet Chess Classic Romania (where he won a playoff against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja). The year has also seen Pragg finish 2nd at the Stepan Avagyan Memorial tournament behind Aravindh. 'Of all his wins this year, this one seemed the least likely with just two rounds to go. However, he defeated Arjun Erigaisi (yesterday) and today in the crucial match defeated Nodirbek Abdussattorov to tie for first place,' wrote five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand on X. 'In an impressive demonstration of character he won his third tiebreak of the year as well. He is deservedly the new number four in the chess world and the highest rated player in India.' 2025 has seen a different Praggnanandhaa after a quiet 2024 by his standards. The 19-year-old has been coaxed to play a brand of 'risky, more attacking and adventurous chess' by his longtime guru, RB Ramesh. Ramesh pointed at Friday's game against Abdusattorov and said that the approach from Pragg throughout the game was testament to this new mindset while playing chess, which he has adopted this year. 'Pragg is quite good in attack, but he was playing too solid in 2024. At least that was my impression. We discussed this and talked about being more adventurous, which you can see now,' Ramesh told The Indian Express. 'His chess was always quite good. Now he's also been adding new openings and trying a lot more variety of openings in games.' What has also worked for him is his second, Vaibhav Suri, who also aided the Indian team at the Chess Olympiad, emerging from behind the curtain and travelling full-time with Pragg to tournaments, starting from the event in Wijk aan Zee earlier this year. 'Vaibhav has been helping us longer than this year. But we did not want to go public earlier (and reveal his association with Pragg). He has been with us for some time, but only recently he has started accompanying Pragg for tournaments and that has been very helpful,' Ramesh said. 'It's good to have someone you know well, who believes in you, travel with you during important tournaments. When you are going through difficult times, it will be easier to believe in ourselves.' Congratulations @rpraggnachess for winning the UZchess cup 2025 after a tremendous comeback towards the end showing strong character. Amazing job by @vaibhavschess instrumental in Pragg winning many titles this year! And the other unknown gentleman who has been contributing from… — Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) June 27, 2025 On X, while congratulating Pragg, Ramesh also indicated there was another second operating from the shadows in Pragg's team. 'Amazing job by Vaibhav, (who has been) instrumental in Pragg winning many titles this year! And the other unknown gentleman who has been contributing from behind the scenes,' Ramesh wrote on X. Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
