CHENNAI: There's something magical about witnessing sporting history as it unfolds in real-time.
Drama. Possibilities. Comparisons.
In an instant, the moment is sold to all and sundry but the purity remains.
At roughly 9.01 PM on Monday, R Praggnanandhaa joined one of the most exclusive of Indian sporting clubs — only Indian, Viswanathan Anand, had featured at the Candidates — after he engineered a sensational takedown of Fabiano Caruana in tiebreaks.
At the fag end of a marathon semifinal that had gone into the third day, the 18-year-old had the finish line in sight: literally and metaphorically. In one smooth motion, he advanced the pawn from A7 to A8, exchanging it for a queen. It was akin to a general ordering their troops for one final assault to defeat a wounded enemy. Caruana may have as well given up the ghost. He did just that a few moves later to hand the Indian the decisive advantage in the second of the two sets of rapid tie-breaks. It was enough for the teenager to advance to the World Cup final against Norway’s Magnus Carlsen.
It’s just a reward for the boy who became a man (he turned 18 during the event) in this record-breaking ascent of his. After two relatively soft-ball match-ups to get his tournament after a smooth start, he had to dig deep to eliminate Hikaru Nakamura in a shorter time control tiebreaks. He also survived a bum-clenching third day against friend and compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the quarterfinal.
It could have gone so wrong for the Tamil Nadu player had Caruana correctly calculated a massive opening during the middle game in the first batch of tie-breaks. But the higher-rated US player made an error in judgement. From there, Praggnanandhaa, who becomes one of the youngest players to feature in the final in its history, recovered lost ground to maintain parity as Caruana veered off course.
Over the course of the last three weeks, he has beaten World No. 3 and World No. 2.
His next task?
Beating the World No. 1.
WATCH | Praggnanandhaa's coach on what makes the Indian Grandmaster special