While the whole of India had its eyes on the newly crowned world champion D Gukesh, RB Ramesh recalls pulling aside R Praggnanandhaa for a frank conversation, towards the end of 2024. By Ramesh’s own admission it was a conversation, which he felt was the need of the hour. And one where he needed to be extremely upfront, for it was not the time to hide whatever emotions that Pragg found himself in.
The topic was without doubt, Gukesh winning the title, but it was more to do about his peer and competitor Pragg. “There were things we discussed at the end of last year,” Ramesh said on the sidelines of the fifth round of the Chennai Grand Masters on Monday. “Does it have a negative impact on you? Because Gukesh, rating wise, he went up. Pragg was 2740 in January. In December also he was 2740. He had had some ups and downs. So do others’ performances have an impact on you? These were some of the issues we discussed,” he added.
Those doubts from Ramesh weren’t misplaced. In August of 2023, Pragg by virtue of claiming silver at the World Cup had already booked the Candidates spot. Gukesh, who was battling for form, was nowhere in the picture. But the inaugural edition of the Chennai Grand Masters gave him an opening, which he grabbed to seal the Candidates before going all the way. Pragg had ended up returning from Candidates with a disappointing outing, finishing fifth as Gukesh surged along.
While there exists a good camaraderie between India’s top trio of Gukesh, Pragg and Arjun Erigaisi, what is also undeniable is the competition. The rivalry that exists between them may not be overtly visible to the outside world, but being second best in Indian chess is a tag that none of them prefers to have around them. Pragg, after all had become the first since Viswanathan Anand to qualify for the Candidates, and had a whole lot of firsts to his name.
“We are all humans and we are all emotional people also. Indians particularly more emotional than let’s say, the West. So, it will have an impact when your competitors are doing better. It can affect you. At the same time, it can inspire you, motivate you. You don’t want to be left behind. So, in a way it’s positive. At the same time, it can be pressure as well if you don’t treat it in the right manner. So it will be a bit of both. If you want to do well, it’s a healthy competition. At the same time it’s depressing when you are not doing well, and your competitors are doing well. And I think everyone has to go through it. And initially it was not very easy because they are young, way younger like 16, 17…They didn’t have the maturity and also, it’s new,” Ramesh recalled.
While Pragg appeared head and shoulders above the rest a couple of years ago, Ramesh says the rise of Gukesh and Arjun means he has got used to dealing with the competition. And instead of making it look like a battle between the trio, Ramesh also has offered the perspective of looking at the bigger picture. “For example, Pragg he was winning World Under-18 Championship. He felt at that time he was the best player in the world. And suddenly there is competition. And that too someone of your age. This was new for the players also — having competitors at your age, contemporaries. But I think in the last two years, everyone kind of got used to this. They don’t see them as contemporaries or competition anymore because there is a wider circle also. You have Alireza (Firouzja), (Nodirbek) Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer and so on. So, it’s not just three vying for the title. From the player’s perspective, now all of them are trying to go to the very top. And there is a healthy race. And each one is not looking at the other anymore. So, everyone is now comfortable with that. They just know that they are going to be around for a while, so no point in getting too worked up about it every time it happens,” Ramesh says.
With the World Cup around the corner, Pragg has found his mojo back. He won three of the most competitive classical tournaments and is in pole position to qualify for the Candidates through the FIDE circuit route. Ramesh says the reason why the 20-year-old struggled last year was down to him not getting enough time to reflect on his game. “First thing is he was playing a bit too much in the last year. And usually, he is not used to playing so much. So, we always have some breaks in between where we can rest and go through what went wrong, what happened, what changes we have to make. But we didn’t get that opportunity till the end of the year. And then we spoke a lot. I gave my feedback; he gave his feedback. And what changes we need to take, and we agreed on a few things like these are the things we need to prioritise. And he has been able to get results so far this year,” Ramesh says.
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For the celebrated coach, Monday was a moment to savour at the Chennai event. There were 8 of his wards in the fray as the fifth round saw only one win in the Masters. Keymer is leading with three wins and two draws with four points.
Results: Masters: Jorden van Foreest bt Ray Robson, Anish Giri drew with Karthikeyan Murali, Nihal Sarin drew with Awonder Liang, Vincent Keymer drew with Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi drew with V Pranav.
Challengers: Harshavardhan GB bt R Vaishali, Abhimanyu Puranik bt D Harika, M Pranesh drew with Leon Mendonca, Aryan Chopra drew with Adhiban Baskaran, P Iniyan drew with Diptayan Ghosh.
