BENGALURU: Pranav Anand was asked to choose between two boards – a chessboard and a ludo board. Pranav chose the first and started his chess journey at the age of 7. He has just bagged the title of an International Master and happens to be the youngest to hold this distinction from Karnataka. He has a live rating of 2,417 points.
At the age of 14 years, 3 months and 15 days, he officially earned the title earlier this month after meeting International Masters requirements in Serbia. “This is just the beginning. I have a lot more to do ahead. My aim is to win the world championship in chess,” says Pranav.
He has two principles in his rule book – hard work and practice that has yielded him victories in international arenas. Anand scored the first norm in Rilton Cup in Sweden (2019), the second norm in Switzerland (2019) and third norm in Russia (2020) and was just 19 points away from becoming an International Master before the pandemic hit. He travelled to Serbia in February this year to participate in the Grand Master Round Robin tournament and qualified for the international master after defeating grandmaster Stefan Djuric in the third round. Talking about the winning moment during the tournament, Pranav says, “I did not know that I became an international master until the 8th round. I heard it only from my fellow chess player.”
Although he was trained under different coaches, his father still remains his first coach. “I held the chess piece for the first time when I was 7, and since then I have been hooked to the game,” says Pranav. Becoming an international master at a very young age comes with practice and commitment, which Pranav believes is the key to achieving this feat. “I train for seven to eight hours a day. Sometimes it extends to nine hours as well. My focus is always to work hard and improve my game and win. At the same time, I also balance my academics well,” adds Pranav.
V Saravanan, who is currently coaching Pranav, finds him “obsessed” with chess. “Generally, I mentor grandmasters and work a little less on coaching. But Pranav’s case is an exception because chess has consumed him. I recommend a lot of chess-related books to him. I upload the material on cloud, and he reads it all up in no time. There is no doubt that he will become a grandmaster very soon.”
Anand A, Pranav’s father, says, “As parents, we have always been proud and happy for him. He has won state, national, international tournaments and he is now preparing to become a grandmaster.” Anand, who works as a technology professional, adds that his son prefers to always wear a sweatshirt during tournaments. “He never wears a T-shirt,” he points out.
Although chess seems to have consumed him, Pranav also spends time playing football and video games to beat his stress. He draws his inspiration from Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen and also grabbed the opportunity to interact with them and share his performance stats with them during a tournament in the UK.