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After beating the World Number 2, Fabiano Caruana, and the World Number 3, Hikaru Nakamura, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa faltered at the very last hurdle. He took Magnus Carlsen into tiebreaks at the World Cup final but the World Number 1 finally put it across the 18-year-old.

However, Prag and his cohort of young Indian compatriots made a huge impression. So did a couple of young players from other countries. Its apparent that chess is on the verge of seeing a generational shift. And, that shift is likely to heavily favour India.

The chess World Cup is one of the most prestigious events on the calendar. Its played on a Wimbledon-style knockout format with progressively shorter time controls and sudden death invoked to ensure every match has a winner. The Open section offers roughly Euro 160,000 in prize money with even the first-round losers getting something.

Even more importantly, the World Cup offers three places in the Candidates cycle from which the challenger to the world champion is selected. This is a gruelling process where eight Candidates duke it out for the right to challenge the champion. The title cycle itself is worth several million in prize money the 2023 match saw Euro 2 million split 55:45 between the two players and the Candidates itself has a minimum Euro 500,000 prize fund.

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Why we must brag about Prag: His loss to chess number one Carlsen doesnt alter the fact that young Indians - Times of India