"People Will Start To Notice Indian Chess": R Praggnanandhaa

Humble to the core, teen sensation R Praggnanandhaa was far from realising the enormity of his achievement in the FIDE World Cup but reckoned his incredible run could force people to "start noticing" Indian chess. It needed the sheer brilliance of Magnus Carlsen to stop the 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa's march as he finished second best after losing in the final on Thursday. "I feel very good to be in the finals, today I didn't win, but it's normal in chess," Praggnanandhaa told PTI from Baku hours after he finished runner-up.

"No, not yet, but I guess it will at some point," he said with a smile when asked if he understood the magnitude of his feat.

Praggnanandhaa put up a valiant effort in the final and held world No. 1 and five-time world champion Carlsen to a draw in the two classical games before going down in the tie-break.

As he shook hands with the Norwegian GM, Praggnanandhaa was surrounded by a group of children asking for his autograph.

"I think it's good for the game and very happy to see so many people following it. And yeah, it'd be nice to see many kids coming to the game and I feel like that's, that's where it's heading to, and I'm very happy with that," Praggnanandhaa replied humbly when asked if he's enjoying the spotlight.

"It (reaching the final) will get more people to play chess and I think in general people will start to notice Indian chess. I think that many people are recognising the sport and I think more people are coming to the game, it's good." His stupendous run at the World Cup involved defeating world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura and world No.3 Fabiano Caruana.

His list of achievements does not end there, as he also became the third youngest player after Bobby Fischer and Carlsen to qualify for the