A mother always gives the best advice. From childhood to adulthood, mothers always guide their children to greater success. In Oslo, Praggnanandhaa encountered something similar. Almost at the half-way stage of Norway Chess 2026, Praggnanandhaa was at the bottom half of the table. The one notable thing was that he had beaten Magnus Carlsen, the G.O.A.T of chess in round 3. The expectations from Praggnanandhaa were not that much in Norway. Neither was it high from the Indian contingent. Then, Pragg’s mother Nagalakshmi came into the scene.
Nagalakshmi has always been the supermom for Pragg and Vaishali. There is an iconic photo where Nagalakshmi has a look of admiration when Pragg beat Hikaru Nakamura in the 2023 Chess World Cup. Now, three years later, she gave a viral piece of advice which completely turned around his Norway Chess fortunes.
“It is a new month, you will play well.” This was Nagalakshmi’s advice to Praggnanandhaa. Speaking to India Today after securing the historic win in Norway, Praggnananandhaa recalled those words.
“I think it’s just one of the things. I just took it as, like, one of the things Amma would say, like, if you’re in a difficult situation to cheer you up. But I didn’t really think it will come true. Once I started getting the wins, I was thinking of her word every day.”
NORWAY CHESS – AN UNBELIEVABLE HEIST
From being at the bottom of the table, Praggnananandhaa needed to win every single game to have a chance at the title. The format of Norway Chess was such that a win gave you three points. A draw plus a win in the Armageddon gave you 1.5 points. Pragg took his mother’s advice and won four straight classical matches against Alireza Firoujza, Magnus Carlsen for the second time, world champion Gukesh and Vincent Keymer.
Heading into the final round, Pragg needed to beat Vincent in classical and ensure Alireza and Wesley So’s game headed into the tiebreaker. Both those situations played out perfectly and Praggnanandhaa scripted the ultimate heist in chess.
What clicked for Pragg? Two things. Playing slightly faster and ensuring that he had better time management, something that the likes of Gueksh and Magnus Carlsen also did not have.
“I had the rest day. Then I lost two in a row. Then I won two in a row. Then we had the rest day. There was no gap in between to bounce back. When you see it as four wins in a row, it sounds great. But I was just taking one game at a time. Winning that one game was all that I needed to do. It kind of simplifies it a little bit. I didn’t really do anything special. Just a conscious effort to play a little bit faster was certainly helping me. I had a lot more control in the last four games. In my time management as well. I had time advantage against everyone,” Praggnanandhaa said.
Did all the final day permutations and combinations play on Pragg’s mind? Heading into Round 10, he was half a point behind Wesley So. But, Pragg had already made plans to tackle the pressure.
“If there was a decision to take, either to go for it or not to go for it. My position was such that I didn’t have a lot of risk. I was just pushing. The worst case that could happen for me is a draw. If I needed a draw, I would have anyway pushed because it’s just a position without any risk. I did see that I liked Wesley’s positions, but it was around always equal. At some point, I saw it, felt like it was heading to a draw. Once I saw it was a draw, I knew that I just had to win. I realized I’m completely winning. That’s when there was some sort of nervousness kicking in. I didn’t get too nervous,” Pragg said.
BEATING MAGNUS TWICE – THE ICING ON THE CAKE
In recorded Chess history, only two players prior to Norway Chess had beaten Magnus Carlsen twice in the same edition. One was Viswanathan Anand in the 2007 Linares event. The other was Vaselin Topalov in the 2008 Bilbao Masters Grand Slam Finals tournament. But, 2007 and 2008 did not see the birth of Magnus the G.O.A.T. His record in the last two decades has been spectacular. Five time world champion, multiple time world rapid and blitz winner, Winner of most titles in Freestyle Chess and its format. There is no peak that Magnus has not conquered in his brilliant career. At home, he has won the Norway Chess 7 times. Despite the famous ‘table-bang’ loss to Gukesh in 2025, he still won Norway Chess.
Faced with such incredible achievements, any player got overwhelmed. But, not Praggnananandhaa. He not only beat Magnus once, he beat him twice. In fact, all of Praggnanandhaa’s classical wins against Magnus have come in his sentinel of Norway. In one tournament, Pragg joined Vishy and Topalov by beating Magnus with both colours. Both times, it was a King blunder by Magnus which ensured Pragg clinched the win.
How did Pragg make Magnus mortal in Norway? “I’ve always wanted to win a tournament ahead of Magnus because whenever he’s there, he’s usually winning it. But winning the tournament is much more special, especially coming from the last place four days back. To win the tournament from that position is something that I never imagined. It’s something certainly of dreams and I’m super happy that it happened,” Pragg remarked.
TAKING HAPPINESS FROM FAMILY AND VAISHALI
At the start of 2026, Pragg was low on confidence heading into the Candidates tournament. It was a crushing experience for Pragg as he lost to Javokhir Sindarov twice. Those losses crushed his hopes of making the World Chess Championship. All the effort put in from the start of 2025 fizzled in the same period in 2026. The warning signs were there. Pragg had lost momentum after UzChess and towards the fag end, he just scraped through from the FIDE Circuit as he had a gap with Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
The Candidates loss rankled Praggnanandhaa. But, he recovered immediately. All thanks to his sister Vaishali, who scripted history to become the first Indian woman player to win the Candidates and secure a world championship spot. That moment, was the turning point for Pragg in his quest to do well in Norway. Candidates plus the win in Norway has really lightened up the Rameshbabu family in more ways than one.
“It is a happy moment for our family. I would say the Candidates is much more special and important for the family because it’s something that we have always dreamt of playing a world championship and hopefully winning it. For me, the only thing I was thinking in the last two years was to get there and to win it. I was certainly disappointed that I couldn’t perform well. But, my sister winning, it certainly helped me in recovering from that,” Pragg said.
For the last couple of years, India Chess Grandmasters have struggled to win in major tournaments. The optimism was waning around Indian Chess. But, Praggnanandhaa’s win and Vaishali’s Candidates title has given renewed vigor and hope.
The likes of Gukesh are currently struggling in the year of the World Championships. However, one has seen that the current bunch of Indian stars feed off the success that others have. If Pragg wins, it motivates Gukesh and Arjun. If Gukesh wins, others get motivated to up their game. This atmosphere is really good for Indian Chess. One hopes that Pragg’s Norway Chess title goes a long way in ensuring there is greater success for India in the upcoming Olympiad and the World Chess Championships.
– Ends
