It was a close contest between India and Gerogia in Round 7 but India managed to pull it off. The next round with Germany was a walk on the cake with India comfortably winning. It was now time for the final showdown with China at the play-offs.
The Indian side had the young prodigy and formidable Grand Master from Chennai Praggnanandhaa. On the Chinese side was Liu Yan. Praggy, as he is endearingly called, was on the ropes but managed to turn the tables finishing with a perfect 6/6.
Praggnanandhaa led India directly to the quarter finals.
Praggnanandhaa, is one of the players representing India at the Chess Olympiad along with his sister Vaishali and fellow chess champions Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Harikrishna Pentala, Koneru Humpy Harika Dronavalli and Divya Deshmukh.
Praggnanandhaa became the youngest international master in history in the year 2016 and had been representing India at various chess championships. After he became the grandmaster in 2018, he had met Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at Chennai. He had told that he aspired to win the world champion for which he was undergoing training. He said that it costs a lot of money to participate in tournaments across the world and requested the Minister if the government can support him.
Nirmala Sitharaman who was the then Defence Minister had assured him of all the support in his endeavours. She had reached out to the Sports Ministry headed by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
Praggnanandhaa was immediately sanctioned ₹30 lakhs from the National Sports Development Fund. His sister who was already an Under 12 and Under 14 champion received ₹10 lakhs.
This was used to get an AMD server on which Praggnanandhaa practises on a daily basis.
Remembering this occasion, coach of Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali thanked the Minister and BJP leaders from Tamil Nadu who helped him in getting the timely sponsorship from Government of India.
From this timely sponsorship, @rpragchess could attend training camp without monetary constraints & get an AMD server which was unaffordable without this timely support. He uses this server on daily basis for his preparations. Thanks @nsitharaman , @VanathiBJP , @KTRaghavanBJP
— Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) August 23, 2020