Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa to be rewarded handsomely by the Government

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa created history by becoming the second youngest grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 10 months and 14 days. On achieving the rare feat, the Honorary Sports Minister of India, Mr Rajyavardhan Singh Rathod has announced that the Government will award an incentive of Rs. 4 lakhs. In addition to that, another 10 lakhs will be spared from the National Sports Development Fund for his training in this year. [embed]https://twitter.com/Ra_THORe/status/1011206276859060224[/embed] The youngster from Chennai completed his feat after having the better of Italian Grandmaster Luca Moroni in the eighth round of the Gredine Open at Ortisei in Italy. Praggnanandhaa earlier became the youngest International Master at the age of 10 years and nine months in May 2016. He was expected to surpass Sergey Karjakin of Russia who became the youngest to do so in 12 years and three months but failed to do so. He was not disappointed at all. When a reporter asked him whether he regrets for not being the youngest Grandmaster, he smiled and said,” No regrets.” Although, he reached the milestone faster than many other stalwarts of the game like World Champion Magnus Carlsen who became Grandmaster at the age of 13 years and 4 months. Indian Legend Viashwanathan Anand achieved it at the age of 18 while Parimarjan Negi was the nation’s youngest till now at the age of 13 years, 4 months and 22 days.

Also read: Praggnanandhaa finishes second in Italy but does chess get its due in India? Praggnanandha’s coach admitted that they never talked about records nor he was in any kind of pressure to perform well, although he was given all the support needed to bring the best out of him. “Praggu was always relaxed. We never put him under any sort of pressure and hardly ever discussed the record. On our part, we ensured that we provided him with the best environment to achieve it, we gave him both the emotional and tactical support,” said coach R B Ramesh. Even the great Vswanathan Anand couldn’t resist from congratulating the prodigy, he tweeted, “Welcome to the club, see you soon in Chennai.”