{"id":2457,"date":"2026-10-05T08:36:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/10\/05\/praggnanandhaa-health-woes-india-silver-chess-olympiad\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T08:36:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:36:47","slug":"praggnanandhaa-health-woes-india-silver-chess-olympiad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/10\/05\/praggnanandhaa-health-woes-india-silver-chess-olympiad\/","title":{"rendered":"Praggnanandhaa on health woes and India&#8217;s silver at Chess Olympiad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"9fece8afa224fd09e54b043d0febfb58\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- NR ATF -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8898941184964366\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4839033563\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>India\u2019s 21\u2011year\u2011old grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the nation\u2019s board\u20111 player, opened up about the physical strain he endured during the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and the mixed emotions surrounding the team\u2019s silver\u2011medal finish. While the Indian squad fell short of defending its gold from the previous edition, Praggnanandhaa\u2019s individual performance earned him a bronze medal, and his comments shed light on the challenges that defined the tournament.<\/p>\n<h2>Recent achievements before Samarkand<\/h2>\n<p>Earlier in the year, Praggnanandhaa was the sole Indian representative in the open section of the 2026 Candidates Tournament held in Cyprus. Although he did not secure the coveted world\u2011title spot, observers noted that the quality of his play remained exceptionally high. The young grandmaster later staged a dramatic comeback at Norway Chess, defeating five\u2011time world champion Magnus Carlsen twice on the Norwegian\u2019s home turf \u2013 a first for any Indian player.<\/p>\n<p>His momentum continued when he became the first Indian to win the Grand Chess Tour, cementing his status as a leading figure on the global chess circuit. These milestones set high expectations for his role at the Olympiad, where he entered as the undisputed Board\u00a01 for India.<\/p>\n<h2>Health challenges at the Olympiad<\/h2>\n<p>Praggnanandhaa\u2019s personal score at Samarkand was three wins from ten games, amounting to 6.5 points. Team captain Srinath Narayanan observed that the tally \u201cstill didn\u2019t completely reflect the level at which he played,\u201d noting that Praggnanandhaa created chances in almost every round and that many draws could have been converted into victories.<\/p>\n<p>During the second half of the event, the grandmaster reported feeling \u201ca little fever\u201d and \u201csome cold,\u201d which left him \u201cnot high on energy towards the end of the tournament.\u201d He added that his condition improved after the competition concluded, thanks to better sleep and recovery.<\/p>\n<p>When asked whether the venue\u2019s food, weather, or accommodations contributed to the illness, Praggnanandhaa dismissed those factors. He praised the Uzbek Chess Federation for arranging a private dining space after the first day, allowing the Indian team to eat familiar Indian food supplied by the All India Chess Federation (AICF). \u201cOverall arrangements after the first day were really good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He speculated that a viral fever was circulating among players, noting that the first half of the Olympiad passed without incident, while the second half saw a surge of similar symptoms across the board. \u201cIt\u2019s rare for me to catch a cold during a tournament,\u201d he remarked, emphasizing that he usually sticks to comfort food and non\u2011sedating medication to avoid fatigue.<\/p>\n<h2>Team performance, critical moments and future plans<\/h2>\n<p>India\u2019s campaign culminated in a silver medal, a result Praggnanandhaa described as \u201cgood\u201d given the high expectations after the previous year\u2019s gold. He acknowledged that replicating a gold\u2011medal performance is \u201cdifficult\u201d because of the depth of competition from other strong nations.<\/p>\n<p>The decisive encounter, according to Praggnanandhaa, was the match against the host nation Uzbekistan. He called it \u201cthe critical match in every Olympiad to come,\u201d highlighting the intensity of the rivalry between two youthful, talented teams. A single queen blunder in teammate Nihal Sarin\u2019s game proved costly, turning what could have been a decisive win into a loss that ultimately tipped the overall team score.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the setback, Praggnanandhaa remained optimistic about the team\u2019s resilience. He noted that \u201cwe all stood as a team\u201d and that even after the blunder, the squad managed to recover mentally. A light\u2011hearted comment about \u201cpadel sessions between games\u201d suggested that off\u2011board activities helped maintain morale.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, Praggnanandhaa said his schedule leaves little room for dwelling on the Candidates Tournament disappointment in Cyprus. He is set to compete in \u201cClutch Chess\u201d in the United States beginning October\u202f27, followed by the Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot event in Budapest on November\u202f10. He expressed confidence that recent results, including the Olympiad performance, will help him move beyond the earlier setback.\n<\/p>\n<p>In his own words, Praggnanandhaa feels his story is only beginning: \u201cI\u2019ve been playing how I want to play. I\u2019ve been enjoying the games, and I think it\u2019s also showing in the results.\u201d The combination of personal health challenges, a silver\u2011medal team finish, and an individual bronze underscores a year of both triumphs and trials for the Chennai\u2011born grandmaster.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India&#8217;s board\u20111 grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa discusses playing through fever at the Samarkand Chess Olympiad, where the team secured silver and he earned an individual bronze.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[470,2125,1664,216,2691],"class_list":["post-2457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-chess","tag-chess-olympiad","tag-grand-chess-tour","tag-india","tag-r-praggnanandhaa","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}