V. Praneeth, relying on memory power and chasing dreams

Praneeth, who won the National U-14 chess title recently, wants to improve his middle and end-games having impressed many with his positional play and strong openings.

V. Praneeth who won the National under-14 chess title recently.

V. Praneeth, who started playing chess to improve his memory power, has turned out to be a tricky customer to his opponents ever since he won his maiden State title (under-7) in 2013.

Recently, the 13-year-old from Telangana clinched his maiden National title in the under-14 (online) championship.

Praneeth, another product from the stable of N.V.S. Rama Raju who also trained the likes of Dronavalli Harika, said it was a different kind of experience playing online. “Luckily, having played in the under-16 and the under-18 Nationals (finishing with 7.5 points from 11 rounds from both the events), I got used to the nuances of online chess and was better prepared,” Praneeth told Sportstar .

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“Definitely, the last four rounds were most crucial and this title gives me the confidence before the World (under-14) championship this August," he said. “Yes, like any chess player, I would like the Worlds to happen across the board,” he said.

A big fan of World champion Magnus Carlsen and Gary Kasparov, Praneeth wants to improve his middle and end-games having impressed many with his positional play and strong openings.

Praneeth, who won the individual gold on the first board representing India in the Asian Nations Cup (under-14) this March, is also looking to better his current ELO 2253.

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His father, V. Srinivas, is an Assistant Commissioner in Commercial Taxes while mother, Lakshmi, is a lecturer in a junior college. Praneeth has the freedom to explore his skills in major events and not worry about financial security.

"I think this National under-14 title is just the beginning of the journey to realise my first goal of becoming a Grandmaster,” said Praneeth, whose first coaches were IM Lanka Ravi and then Narasimha Rao before joining Raju five years ago.

Raju is confident that Praneeth can become the next Grandmaster from Telangana. “The beauty is he never gets tired even after eight hours of training on the computer. He simply loves to keep playing chess,” he concluded.