Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa Height, Weight, Age, Body Statistics
June 2024 · 5 minute read
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa Quick Info
Height
5 ft 5 in
Weight
62 kg
Date of Birth
August 10, 2005
Zodiac Sign
Leo
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is an Indian chess player who came into the spotlight in February 2022 when he became the youngest player to defeat Magnus Carlsen since November 2013 when the latter became the world chess champion for the first time. He had also become just the 3rd Indian player to have defeated Carlsen in any time format after Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna.
Born Name
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa
Nick Name
Praggu
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa as seen in an Instagram Post in March 2020 (Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa / Instagram)
Sun Sign
Leo
Born Place
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Residence
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Nationality
Occupation
Chess Player
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa as seen in an Instagram Post in May 2019 (Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa / Instagram)
Family
Father – Rameshbabu (Banking Officer)
Mother – Nagalakshmi
Siblings – Vaishali Rameshbabu (Older Sister) (Chess Player, Woman Grandmaster (WGM), Girls’ World Youth Chess Championship Winner in the Under-14 and Under-12 tiers)
Build
Slim
Height
5 ft 5 in or 165 cm
Weight
62 kg or 136.5 lbs
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa as seen in an Instagram Post in September 2021 (Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa / Instagram)
Race / Ethnicity
Asian (Indian)
Hair Color
Black
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
Slender frame
Short-cropped, side-parted hair
Affable smile
Clean-shaven look
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa as seen in an Instagram Post in October 2019 (Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa / Instagram)
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa Facts
A child prodigy, Praggnanandhaa had won the World Youth Chess Championships Under-8 title in 2013. The feat had earned him the title of FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) ‘Master’ at the age of just 7. In 2015, he had won the title in the under-10 tier.
In 2016, at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days, he became the youngest ‘International Master’ in history.
At the 2017 World Junior Chess Championship, he had ended up 4th with 8 points, earning his first ‘Grandmaster’ norm. He had gained his 2nd ‘Grandmaster’ norm at the Heraklion Fischer Memorial GM Norm tournament in April 2018. He had attained his 3rd and final ‘Grandmaster’ norm at the Gredine Open in Italy in June 2018.
At the age of 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days, he was the then 2nd-youngest person ever to have achieved the rank of ‘Grandmaster’ after Sergey Karjakin (12 years and 7 months).
In July 2019, he had won the Xtracon Chess Open in Denmark with a score of 8.5 out of a possible 10 points. In October 2019, he had won the World Youth Championships in the under-18 section with a score of 9 out of a possible 11 points. In December 2019, at the age of 14 years, 3 months, and 24 days, he became the 2nd-youngest person to have achieved a FIDE Elo rating of 2600.
In April 2021, he had won the Polgar Challenge, the 1st of the 4 legs of the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, a rapid online chess event that was jointly organized to promote young talents by the Julius Baer Group and Chess24.com. He had scored 15.5 out of a possible 19 points.
This had helped him qualify for the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, a 10-month long series of 10 online chess tournaments featuring the world’s top players who compete for a prize money pool of USD 1.5 million. He had competed in one of those 10 tournaments and had finished in 12th place there, ending up in the joint 20th position overall on the tour in a field of 44 participants.
At the Chess World Cup 2021, a 206-player single-elimination chess tournament that was held in Sochi, Russia, he had reached the 4th round (last 32 players) of the tournament. He was the 2nd best Indian player at the tournament only behind Vidit Gujrathi who had reached the quarter-final stage.
He defeated world #1, Magnus Carlsen, for the second time in May 2022 in the 5th round of the Chessable Masters online rapid chess tournament.
Praggnanandhaa had once again defeated world #1, Magnus Carlsen, at FTX Crypto Cup in Miami in August 2022. Praggnanandhaa finished the tournament as a runner-up with 15 points while Magnus won the tournament with 16 points.
In June 2023, Rameshbabu was asked in his class 12 exam paper to “write a letter to a friend who was studying abroad to describe to him how the 44th Chess Olympiad was conducted.” Since Rameshbabu is a grandmaster and the 44th Chess Olympiad happened from July to August 2022, he was happy to answer that question.
At the age of 18, in August 2023, R Praggnanandhaa became the youngest player in chess’s history to reach the Chess World Cup Final by defeating Fabiano Caruana in the semi-final.
In August 2023, he also became the second Indian (after Viswanathan Anand) to reach the final of the Chess World Cup. He finished as runner-up and lost to Magnus Carlsen in the Chess World Cup 2023 and won $80,000 (₹66 lakh at that time) as prize money. With this, he also qualified for FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024.
Featured Image by Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa / Instagram
