‘Pragg’s saying I’m open for battle’: How Praggnanandhaa beat Vidit after going on attack from 4th move at Candidates

Chess Candidates Tournament 2024 Round 3:  R Praggnanandhaa emerged victorious in the battle between two Indian grandmasters in Round 3 of the Candidates chess tournament. The 18-year-old bounced back from his second round defeat to compatriot Gukesh by beating Vidit Santosh Gujrathi in 45 moves.

Pragg and his family had more reason to cheer as his sister, R Vaishali, also earned a victory in Round 3 over Nurgyul Salimova, after she had suffered defeat yesterday.

The seeds of Praggnanandhaa’s victory were sown as early as the fourth move where he pushed his pawn forward to the f5 square — it was an unorthodox move in the Ruy Lopez. The engine called the move an inaccuracy as soon as Pragg moved it.

On the FIDE commentary, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand called the move a “Delayed Schliemann”.

“Pragg is just being very provocative,” said Anand before breaking down what the teenager was aiming to achieve with the move: “He’s baiting Vidit. He’s saying ‘You know what? You want to get me?’ That kinda thing. It’s quite likely that Vidit will know something about it, because this line has been played by Surya (Shekhar Ganguly, who is Vidit’s trainer for the Candidates). But does he remember it today? Pragg is saying I’m open for battle. I’m feeling lucky today punk!”

INTERACTIVE: You can check out how the Round 3 game between Vidit and Praggnanandhaa played out

On Twitter, grandmaster Srinath Narayanan tweeted: “Surya had shown me this variation a few years ago. I wonder if he had shown this variation to Vidit.”

Later, while analysing the game, Anand said: “There were some dramatic moments in today’s Candidates games, most of them came in the Vidit vs Pragg game.”

What Praggnanandhaa said about his plans

In the post-match press conference, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit came together to analyse the game.

There, talking about his opening move, Praggnanandhaa said: “I wanted to play something interesting after yesterday’s game (where he lost to Gukesh). This is a very interesting line where white is probably better if it plays accurately.”

Praggnanandhaa revealed he had studied the line in the morning itself and knew what to do when white reclaims the f4 square with his knight. However, it took him some time to recollect what the accurate next move was.

“There are many possibilities for white, but I couldn’t remember what to do when he played knight takes f5. It took me some time to recollect that I play d6, which is very important, otherwise black is probably lost,” said Praggnanandhaa.

How other experts reacted

“Pragg’s played a completely insane variation in Spanish,” remarked Hikaru Nakamura while he was being interviewed about his views on his own draw against Nijat Abasov.

Praggnanandhaa’s aggressive move also stunned experts. IM Rakesh Kulkarni, who is part of Chess.com’s commentary panel for their live broadcasts on YouTube of the ongoing FIDE Candidates tournament, called it a “Mouse-drop moment”.

On the Chess.com stream, grandmaster Peter Leko said: “I’m speechless! I’m supposed to be a Ruy Lopez expert, but definitely I haven’t seen this position in the last 25 years!”

American chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky added that the move is “considered to be one of the most dubious responses to the Ruy Lopez!”

But the move worked wonders for Pragg. Vidit was constantly under time trouble in the game and eventually lost after 45 moves.

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