New IM Prraneeth targets GM title by August
Hyderabad: Telangana chess player Prraneeth Vuppala became the seventh from the State to achieve the International Master (IM) title when he got his third IM norm in Hungary, Budapest on Wednesday. The performance at the event also earned him his first Grandmaster norm.
The 15-year-old youngster is now training his sights on achieving the next two GM norms and 2,500 rating points to achieve the GM title by August this year. Speaking after achieving the IM title, the intermediate first year student from Sri Chaitanya Junior College, Habsiguda, said, “I am delighted with the IM title. My goal is to achieve the GM title by August. I am training 12 hours a day.” He currently has 2,433 rating points and needs another 67 points for the second GM norm.
Prraneeth got his first GM at the age of 11 in 2018. He then crossed the 2,400 rating points and secured second IM norm at Vergani Cup in January this year. He is currently competing in Vezerkepzo GM tournament where he is confident of accumulating more ELO rating points. “My dream is to become World Champion one day like Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen,” he revealed, saying that he idealises and draws inspiration from both of them.
Prraneeth, a child prodigy, has many firsts to his name. He achieved the World No.1 ranking in the under-11 category in 2018. He also holds a national record of gaining 222 rating points from a single tournament. He achieved it in January 2015 in New Delhi. He also won a bronze medal in Asian Youth Chess Championship in South Korea in the under-8 age category in 2015 and got fourth place in the 2016 Commonwealth Chess Championship in New Delhi. Prraneeth played in the World Cadet Chess Championship in Greece in 2015 and in Brazil in 2017 where he gained 106 rating points.
The talented youngster, who hails from llagadapa village, Nalgonda district, started playing chess as a 5 ½-year-old kid when his father Srinivasa Chary, who works as assistant commissioner in GST (State), introduced him to the game. “When I was playing chess with my friend, Prraneeth came and sat with us. He observed the game and half an hour later, he repeated all the moves. That prompted us to encourage him to pursue a career in chess. He is a dedicated kid and works hard on his game,” said Srininvasa Chary.
“He became State champion in the under-7 category in 2013 and got sixth place in nationals in 2014. When he got a bronze medal in the Asians in South Korea next year, he was felicitated by the Chief Minister at the flag hoisting ceremony at the Golconda Fort and this spurred him to perform better and bring laurels to the State,” added his father.
Prraneeth, who trained under noted coach Ramaraju at his academy RACE for seven years from 2015 to 2021 November, is currently training with Israel Grandmaster Victor Mikhalevski.
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