NEW DELHI: A 12-year-old Indian boy described as “unstoppable” by his proud father has become the world’s second youngest chess grandmaster ever.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the son of a bank employee from the southern city of Chennai, achieved the feat with some aggressive play at an event in northern Italy that ended Sunday.
Praggnanandhaa — whose 17-year-old big sister Vaishali Rameshbabu is also no slouch at the game, being a two-time youth chess champion — was aged 12 years, 10 months and 13 days when he won the title.
But this was too old to beat the current record-holder, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, who was 12 years and exactly seven months when he made the grade in 2002.
Praggnanandhaa’s father said that his son, who practices six hours a day and watches past matches online, was not even four when he first started taking an interest in chess.
However he said that the family could not afford to pay for extra travel and training for both the boy and his sister.
“But the passion in him to play chess was unstoppable, I had to give in and put him in coaching classes. And he has been unstoppable since,” the 53-year-old, who has the same name as his son, told Indian media.
“He was just six years old when he came second in the under-eight national championship. That is when I knew that I can’t hold him back because of our financial situation,” he told online paper The News Minute.
A predecessor to chess is thought by some to have originated in India in the sixth century AD, from where it spread to Persia and developed into the “Game of Kings” it is today.
However in modern times it only achieved major popularity in India when Vishwanathan Anand became the country’s first grandmaster aged 18 in 1988 and dominated the game in the 2000s.
On Sunday the five-time world champion congratulated Praggnanandhaa.
“Welcome to the club & congrats Praggnanandhaa!! See u soon in chennai,” he wrote on Twitter.
“He plays other outdoor sports too when he wants to relax his mind,” the prodigy’s father said.
“When his focus is not on the board, he is quite a handful. But he saves most of his aggression for the chessboard,” he said.
Grandmaster in a flash: Indian prodigy chess champ at 12
Grandmaster in a flash: Indian prodigy chess champ at 12
Lunar New Year bowing service in China stokes controversy
- Customers could hire proxies to bow and show respect for family members
- Odd jobs app UU Paotui withdraws service after online outrage and mockery
BEIJING: A Chinese odd jobs mobile app has canceled a service that let users hire proxies to bow to their elderly relatives during Lunar New Year family visits, sparking scrutiny of China’s “hire-anyone-for-anything” service sector. Promotional images of the now-deleted service depicted an orange uniform-clad delivery worker on their knees bowing, forehead nearly on the floor, in front of a smiling elderly couple. Online responses ranged from outrage to mockery.
“Filial piety should not be commoditized,” one Weibo user said, referring to the culture of respect for and deference to older family members.
Visiting loved ones and offering good wishes are an important part of the traditional Lunar New Year holiday, although bowing is not widely practiced today.
“After careful consideration, we have voluntarily removed the services that caused controversy,” said odd jobs app UU Paotui, based in central China’s Henan, in a Wednesday WeChat post.
As of Friday, the app still offered a New Year greeter service — with immediate dispatch options — but the 999 yuan ($144.77), two-hour bowing-for-hire package was no longer visible.
Buyers of the now-deleted bowing package could hire gig workers to buy and send gifts, “perform traditional etiquette,” and offer “one minute of auspicious blessings” to loved ones, among other services. The services were meant to help people living far from their families and those with mobility issues maintain traditional customs, UU Paotui said, adding it would offer triple compensation to customers who had already booked.
People who have moved away for work typically return home to visit their families for the most important festival on the Chinese calendar, creating a travel rush commonly referred to as the world’s largest annual human migration. In a nod to the increasingly virtual nature of social life in China, UU Paotui suggested replacing the in-person visits with an app could help avoid awkward social interactions.
“If you don’t want to have social anxiety during the new year, the experience has to be online!” said a Monday Weibo post announcing the service.
Time-poor consumers boost proxy services
Proxy services are not uncommon in China, where labor costs are relatively low and convenience is at a premium for urban consumers.
Outside the holiday period, UU Paotui users can hire someone through the app to accompany them to hospital, feed their pets, or wait in queues at restaurants and other busy locations.
A Wednesday commentary in the People’s Daily, the Communist Party newspaper, called the bowing service “very awkward” and urged closer scrutiny of the proxy service industry.
“Real innovation should meet needs while also safeguarding values,” it said, pointing out that paying a proxy to cover work shifts, for example, could come with legal risks. The controversy comes amid increasing concern for China’s often overworked delivery workers, who can sometimes be seen sprinting through shopping malls and residential compounds to deliver an order on time.
President Xi Jinping met delivery workers on Wednesday to wish them a happy new year and acknowledge their hard work.
“The city couldn’t function without workers like you,” he said.
