'Buddy' Pranav embraces common cold en-route Junior World Chess title

The pre-teen flexes his novice knowledge of the game and checkmates his uncle in every game on his fancy chess board – one where the pieces are carved in shape of animals.

The six-year-old watches all this from the sidelines. The animals moving over the board catch his fancy.

They return home and the kid asks his father for a chess set. He can’t find the fancy chess board and buys a normal one instead.

The kid is hooked to the game.

The six-year-old is Pranav Venkatesh – India’s newly crowned chess world champion.

Pranav, now 18, ended India’s 17-year long wait as he won the 2025 FIDE World Junior Chess Championships in Montenegro on Friday.

He is only the fourth Indian after Viswanathan Anand (1987), Pentala Harikrishna (2004), and Abhijeet Gupta (2008) to lift the title.

The win also means Pranav now holds three world titles at the age group level simultaneously. He was crowned the Youth Rapid and Blitz champion in December last year.

Pranav entered the competition in Montenegro as the second seed and bulldozed his way to the title. He finished unbeaten, scoring 9/11 with seven wins and four draws.

While his stint over the board to the title was smooth, he did struggle with the weather in the European nation.

“The weather in Montenegro did not suit him,” said Venkatesh, Pranav’s father in a conversation with The Bridge. “Just before the fourth round of play, he caught cold.”

It was tough but Pranav was determined to push through. The father, who had accompanied him for the competition, found the required medications and it eventually subsided a few days later.

Such was Pranav’s domination in the event that the Indian led by a whole point with two rounds left to play.

A draw in the penultimate round against GM Alexy Grebnev meant that the lead was down to half-a-point. He still needed only a draw in the final round to clinch the title.

Pranav was calm. Venkatesh was not.

“We did not discuss the games at all,” said Venkatesh from the Abu Dhabi airport on his way to Chennai. “My job was to keep him calm and keep him focused.

“I was very nervous before the final round when he just needed a draw. I was more tensed than him,” he added.

The rapid rise

Venkatesh, an IT professional who works remotely, never played chess. Neither did his wife or Pranav’s mother.

The father started learning the sport along with a six-year-old Pranav. But the son was too strong him right from the beginning, taking to the sport like a fish to water.

The knight – one of the toughest pieces to master over the chess board – was Pranav’s favourite piece, Venkatesh recalled.

“He is the first in the family (to play chess),” said the father. “He was too good for us even as a child. He understood how the knight moves very quickly.”

Chess was never the first extracurricular for Pranav as a child. His parents had him enrolled him in dance classes, singing classes, as well as skating – but none of it stuck.

Not because Pranav wasn’t interested but only because chess meant much more to him.

A 10-year-old Pranav was the highest ranked player in the world in his age category back in 2017. Then rated in the 2300s, he even beat a 2650 Grandmaster to make the world take note of his prodigious talent.

The emergence of Buddy Pranav

However, the next three years were tough.

Pranav neither got to play high quality tournaments nor did he have access to high level trainers, who could propel him forward. Managing finances was difficult for the family.

Pranav, however, started to make waves during the covid-19 enforced lockdown, playing online chess.

The teenager played a lot of game online with Canadian GM and popular streamer Eric Hansen during this period.

Hansen dubbed him ‘Buddy Pranav’ during his Twitch streams. The moniker stuck and he continues to be known as ‘buddy Pranav’ in the chess world.

The online games helped him improve. He earned his International Master title in 2021 and followed it up by becoming India’s 75^th GM in August the following year.

‘Buddy Pranav’ impressed some of the biggest names in chess including the likes of Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand when he played at the European Club Chess tournament in 2023.

Pranav was Carlsen’s teammate for the event and helped the five-time World Champion to his first-ever team title.

“Pranav is buddy and buddy is Pranav,” Carlsen famously tweeted in awe back then.

Anand, who was also playing in the same tournament albeit for a different team, took note and later inducted him to the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy – a program he runs to mentor rising talents in the country.

It opened up a world of opportunities for Pranav, who now trains with GM Shyam Sundar – one of the foremost coaches in the country.

Anand termed the youngster “meticulous” in a social media post after his triumph.

Road ahead

Pranav, now a 12^th grade student, continues to juggle academics along with his playing career. The fact that he is enrolled at the Velammal Nexus – the same school the likes of world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and others helps.

With all the three age group world titles in the bag, Pranav is now eyeing to break into the 2700-rating club.

“The next aim is to touch the 2700-rating mark,” asserted Venkatesh. “From there we’ll start working towards the Candidates and then ultimately winning the senior world championships.”

For that, Pranav needs invites to the closed tournaments. With an extremely talented crop of Indian players already rated higher than him in contention, it puts him in a tricky spot.

But Venkatesh is optimistic.

“We are trying to follow the path set by other good players and hope to get invited to super tournaments soon with his performance at the junior level,” the father said.

Pranav started in chess just because of he was attracted to the uniquely shaped animals on the board.

Now he is much more. Another name in the list of India’s ever-growing chess talent pool.