Vuppala Praneeth becomes India's 82nd Grandmaster

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15-year-old chess player Vuppala Praneeth from Telangana has become the 82nd Grandmaster of India.

An Overview of the News

• Vuppala Praneeth defeated GM Hans Niem of USA during the final round of Baku Open 2023 to clinch the Grandmaster title.

• Praneeth clinched his first GM-norm and International Master (IM) title at the tournament in March 2022.

• He earned his second GM-norm at the Biel MTO in July 2022, followed by his final GM-norm nine months later at the second Chessable Sunway Formentera Open 2023.

• The first Indian Grandmaster was Viswanathan Anand, who held the title in 1988.

• Anand is a five-time world champion and is considered one of the greatest chess players of all time.

Important Points:

• 16-year-old chess player Pranesh M became India's 79th Grandmaster after winning the Rilton Cup in Stockholm, Sweden.

• Chennai-based chess player Vignesh NR became India's 80th Grandmaster after winning the 24th Nordwest Cup 2023 held at Bad Zwischenahn, Germany.

• Sayantan Das became India's 81st Grandmaster after his victory at the International Festival des Jeux in Cannes, France.

About Telangana

• It is a state located in south-central India on the high Deccan Plateau.

• It is the eleventh largest state of India by area.

• Telangana is bordered by Maharashtra to the north, Chhattisgarh to the northeast, Karnataka to the west, and Andhra Pradesh to the east and south.

• As of 2019, the state of Telangana is divided into 33 districts.

Formed (by split) - 2 June 2014

Capital - Hyderabad

Governor - Tamilisai Soundararajan

Chief Minister – K Chandrasekhar Rao (BRS)

Rajya Sabha - 7 seats

Lok Sabha - 17 seats