'Foreigners wonder what India is': Pranesh on GCL, Praggnanandhaa 'rumors' and Vaishali

Vaishali’s mother Nagalakshmi, Pranesh M, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Vaibhav Suri (Photo by Michal Walusza) BENGALURU: Bengaluru’s Lalit Ashok Hotel, home of the Global Chess League (GCL) Season 4, was not short of marquee pairs this week, but the one that turned heads on Monday belonged to a 20-year-old who shouldn’t have been there. Entering this year’s tournament as a late replacement for Vladimir Fedoseev, Chennai-born Grandmaster Pranesh M entered this year’s tournament as a late replacement for Mumba Masters board number two, and spent the tournament making that footnote look increasingly irrelevant, first by defeating Anish Giri on the opening day, then more conspicuously by eliminating Levon Aronian’s position from the white side, punishing a kimislic move through Siciliano. the clean, calculated surface that has become his signature.“I think I overplayed him (Levon) a bit in the beginning,” Pranesh told TimesofIndia.com during an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the GCL. “He went for g5, a bit of a mistake, but I don’t know what else he could have done. It looked so bad for him. I had clear plans and it’s hard to play faster than one move.”Board 2, he says, didn’t intimidate him the way some might expect a teenager thrown into such a strong field. “I feel really happy. I think I can really compete with them,” he added with a smile.In August, just before he joined his GCL side, Pranesh outright won the Kanizsa Open in Hungary, going nine rounds unbeaten to move his ranking into the world’s top fifty.It culminated a stretch that began, less visibly, in Cyprus, where he didn’t play for himself at all for weeks but worked as GM Vaishali Rameshbabu’s second and training partner to the Women’s Candidates title.From an 1800 player to Vaishali’s trusted confidantVaishali and her coach RB Ramesh were candid about why Pranesh was brought to this camp. Vaishali, despite her poker reputation at the board, takes losses hard, and Ramesh and his wife Aarthie wanted someone around who could keep the spirits up. However, Pranesh’s own job description is characteristically low-key.“Mainly Vaishali akka will get serious during the game and after the game she will wonder where did she go wrong,” revealed Pranesh. “I’ll just tell her, I don’t care; even if you don’t make a mistake, you win the tournament. There were a lot of mistakes in that tournament, so. I was just being myself.”Vaishali was around during Candidates; in the wider Chess Gurukul ecosystem, he grew up alongside players like Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh Chithambaram. His relationship with Vaishali goes back years, to a time when he wasn’t rated anywhere near where he is now.“I went with Vaishali because I have known her for a long time,” he said. “Even when I was around 1800 she was still dating Ramesh sir.Did he use some special trick to keep her calm? he replied with a laugh, “It (the tendency to be funny with loved ones) is natural now. I think I kind of cultivated it from a young age. I don’t know. I was just being myself.”Vaishali’s tournament was important to him in those fortnight. Her brother Praggnanandhaa entered the men’s ranks as India’s only hope before finishing second in the order. The gap between the two campaigns will not be lost on anyone who follows Indian chess closely.Asked directly if the mood in the camp had changed after Pragg’s result, Pranesh waved away any hint of tension, adding, “It’s just normal. There’s nothing else between the performance and everything.”He was just as quick to shut down news that he was also formally part of Pragg’s team. “Actually no, these are just rumours. I was only part of Vaishali’s team. But I spoke to both of them,” he remarked.This mix of constancy and self-deprecation runs through much of what Pranesh talks about this year. He credits the recent training block under Ramesh alongside the likes of R Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh Chithambaram.

Young Pranesh with his coach RB Ramesh (special arrangement)

“The goal was to make us stronger,” said Pranesh, who now has a rating of 2674 and is aiming to break 2700. “Each class will actually have some difficult puzzles and also some interesting puzzles to make some decisions and everything.”Will Pranesh join Vaishali for her Women’s World Championship match? As for his tenure in Bengaluru so far, the GCL bubble itself has clearly left an impression, mostly for reasons that have nothing to do with chess. He described the phenomenon of Indian crowds chanting for players as something that visibly rattles foreign competitors.“Foreigners just wonder what India is,” he said, recalling a conversation with his own American teammate, GM Carissa Yip. “She told me she had never seen anything like this in the US.“Every strong player comes here and plays, and even Magnus (Carlsen) plays here. That’s a big achievement.”Also Read: Pranesh M, son of anganwadi worker, is India’s highest chess grandmasterAnd finally, when asked about the chances of joining Vaishali for her upcoming Women’s World Championship match, he couldn’t stop laughing before muttering, “Maybe, but I don’t know. First of all, I don’t know when the dates will be released.”

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