India’s second-youngest chess grandmaster, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa celebrates his 15th birthday on August 10, 2020 (Monday). Praggnanandhaa is also the fourth youngest chess GM in the world. He was the second youngest to become a GM, only behind Ukraine’s Sergey Karjakin, when he achieved the rank of the grandmaster after beating Luca Moroni at the Gredine Open in Urtijei in 2018. Despite in his teen years, Praggnanandhaa is already a chess prodigy and competes in international chess tournaments. International Chess Day 2020: Check Out the Date & Significance of the Day.

Praggnanandhaa was attracted to chess after watching his elder sister play and compete in local chess tournaments. He accompanied his sister and insisted on learning the game of which he is a master now. On his 15th birthday, take a look at some lesser-known facts about Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa.

  • Praggnanandhaa was born to Rameshbabu and Nagalakshmi in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on August 10, 2005

  • Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is India's second-youngest chess grandmaster. Dommaraju Gukesh, who became a chess GM at 12 years, 7 months and 17 days, is the youngest grandmaster from the country

  • Praggnanandhaa became the GM at 12 years, 10 months and 13 days after winning the Gredine Open

  • Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is also the fourth-youngest grandmaster in the world after Sergey Karjakin (12 years, 7 months), D Gukesh (12 years, 7 months, 17 days) and Javokhir Sindarov (12 years, 10 months, 5 days)

  • Praggnannanddhaa’s elder sister R Vaishali is also a Chess Player and is Woman International Master (WIM) and Woman grandmaster (WGM)

  • He took to chess after watching his elder sister Vaishali and has been playing the game since the age of 5

  • In May 2016, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest International Master (IM) in Chess' history at 10 years and 10 months

  • Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is also the second youngest to cross the 2600 Elo Mark in chess

Months after he became the country’s then youngest chess grandmaster, Praggnanandhaa was invited to the Leon Masters in Spain for a four-game rapid match against Wesley So and although Praggnanandhaa lost the match 1-2, he earned Wesley’s praise, who called the youngest champion ‘a genius.’ Praggnanandhaa has since gone on to win the under-18 World Youth Chess Championships in 2019.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 10, 2020 08:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).