CHENNAI: R Praggnanandhaa had been in a stellar form at the FIDE World Cup in Baku. His big victories apart from the one against his close friend and teammate Arjun Erigaisi, are the ones against higher-rated players -- World N0 2 Hikaru Nakamura and world No 3 Fabiano Caruana. His coach RB Ramesh who has been following his moves remotely felt his ward should concentrate on physical exercise to gain more energy level.”
“Overall, a lot of positives in the tournament,” Ramesh told this daily. “In the future when we go to big events, need to learn how to keep that energy level... probably do some physical exercise and keep that energy level and stamina up.”
Interestingly, the 18-year-old had complained about not feeling up to the mark in terms of energy even before the Caruana match. While Pragg came through that test, Ramesh was hoping that his ward would have recovered post two drawn affairs to start the final. “He was already kind of complaining before the Caruana match,” he said. “Today, in the first match, he played reasonably well.
But he was going slow. As a result, when he could have put Magnus in trouble, he made some suspicious moves. And got into trouble quickly. He had 20 seconds against Magnus’ 2.5 minutes. The nerves also played their part. In the second game, he couldn’t get anything as Magnus killed it. But these things are nice learning experiences. Overall, this has been an invaluable experience for Pragg.”
Apart from the physical exercise, Ramesh said there were also plans afoot to develop Pragg’s mental toughness. “He’s already mentally tough but want to make him even tougher. We have gone through an Art of Living course, we tried some meditation with Isha Yoga but the thing is he’s not doing it regularly. There’s a lot of stress involved at this level.”
All that, though, will take a backseat as Ramesh just wants his ward to go through the process over the next few days. Once he cools down and finishes his remaining tournaments in 2023, they will have a conversation. “All this can wait. Now, Pragg will give his interviews. Once the media attention dies and he finishes his tournaments, we will have a talk.”
GM Srinath Narayanan, who will be coaching the Indian team in the upcoming Asian Games, is happy with the way the youngsters from the country have fared in the World Cup. “Previously, we had Anand winning everything, dominated kind of like what Carlsen has this year back in 2002-04. But back then, it was different times and it was just one exceptional player from India.
Now, we have a generation of players coming through. We had four Indians in the quarterfinals and we had this representation in the final. As a country, I think we had the best performance in the World Cup. No one had reached past quarter-finals from India except Anand, but this time we had four players. So that’s a 400% improvement,” said Srinath who will be conducting a preparatory camp for Asian Games in Kolkata from August 30.