'I'm Surprised': Aronian after Pragg wins India's historic GCT title | Exclusive
Indian chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa has won the Grand Chess Tour title, earning praise from veteran Grandmaster Levon Aronian. Aronian noted that Praggnanandhaa successfully improved his performance in rapid and blitz formats, which were previously considered his weaknesses.
Why it matters
The victory marks a historic milestone for Indian chess and highlights the rapid development of young talent in the global competitive circuit.
NEW DELHI: A year ago, American Grandmaster Levon Aronian beat Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in their third-place match at the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) Finals in São Paulo, Brazil. Playing fast-paced chess, he gradually came to understand one thing. Blitz and rapid, the Armenian great had apprehended, were the young Indian's soft spots.Last Thursday in St Louis, that same soft spot helped Praggnanandhaa script history.He beat Fabiano Caruana 15-13 in the GCT Finals, becoming the first Indian and only the seventh player in the event's 11-year history to lift the title, pocketing $200,000 in the process.He got there by winning both rapid games in the final before holding a four-game blitz section to a 4-4 draw, the exact terrain Aronian once flagged as his weakness."After last year's GCT finals, where I beat him, I thought that blitz and rapid are his weak points, and that should be exploited.
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