Chess

The Indian chess body said the decision was taken considering all the aspects of safety and security of our young players as the Gaza Strip is only 397 Km away from Sharm El Sheikh and the conflict can significantly impact commercial airlines in the Middle East on short notice.

And he did that in style at the recently-concluded FIDE World Cup held at Baku, Azerbaijan, knocking out world No. 2 and 3 -- GM Hikaru Nakamura (2,787) and Fabiano Caruana (2,782) of the US, respectively -- before going down to world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen (2,835) of Norway in the final, losing in tie-breaker.

The chess prodigy was accompanied by his parents as they called on the Prime Minister at the latter's residence. “Had very special visitors at 7, LKM (Lok Kalyan Marg) today. Delighted to meet you, Praggnanandhaa along with your family,” the Prime Minister wrote on X (formerly twitter) in response to a post by Praggnanandhaa.

Former world champion Carlsen clinched the title by winning the first tie-breaker game and then drawing the second one.

Praggnanandhaa, who had played out a draw with white pieces on Tuesday, held the Norwegian five-time World Champion in Classical Chess to another draw, this time with black pieces.

The final score stood at 3.5-2.5 in favour of the Chennai youngster. After drawing the first two tie-break games, the Indian slayed Caruana in the third game and drew the next one.

Whether Praggnanandhaa makes it to the Candidates Tournament - where the winner would challenge the world champion for the world title - is the question that occupies the mind of this mind game players and followers.