A photograph often speaks a million words. The image of teen sensation R Praggnanandhaa’s mother, R Nagalakshmi, from the recently-concluded Chess World Cup, that instantly went viral across all social media platforms, certainly did. As the Indian prodigy was busy fulfilling his media duties after one of his wins en route to the final, his mother stood in the corner, away from the attention, and looked at her son in sheer disbelief and pride at what he had achieved at such a young age. And while Praggnanandhaa remained the cynosure, the million-dollar expression of his mother caught the attention of a photographer. Days after it had gone viral, Nagalakshmi reacted on it.
Grandmaster Praggnanandhaa’s stellar run in the FIDE World Cup at Baku ended on Thursday when world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen beat him 1.5-0.5 in the tie-break after the classical games ended in a stalemate. Praggnanandhaa had earlier become only the second player from India after Viswanathan Anand, and the youngest, to play in the FIDE World Cup final.
Nagalakshmi, who has played a massive role in her son’s road to success and has often accompanied him to national and international events, was elated that the 18-year-old seal a berth in the Candidates Tournament. Praggnanandhaa will be the third youngest player after the legendary Bobby Fischer and Carlsen to qualify for the event. She said: “We are extremely happy that he came this far in the tournament. And more than that, we are elated to see him seal his berth for Candidates.”
Nagalakshmi then opened up on that viral image during her son’s campaign in Baku, saying that she so engrossed watching her son play that she didn’t notice she became the focus of attention.
“During the quarterfinals of the World Cup (against compatriot Arjun Erigaisi), I was so engrossed in thinking what Praggnanandhaa was up to…that was the only thing which was going on in my mind. Later on, I found those photos had gone viral. I didn’t even know they clicked those pictures,” said Nagalakshmi.
The sensational picture was taken by Maria Emelianova, who has been working as a photographer at chess events since 2010.
Speaking on that image in an interview with RevSportz, she said: “When you do exclusively one sport for so long, you get player’s personalities, reactions and range of emotions imprinted in your memory and sometimes my choice of angles and movement comes from a muscle memory or intuition rather than from my conscious planning. I’ve always admired Nagalakshmi, Vaishali – Pragg’s sister, and also his dad, whom I met in Chennai: same as all my Indian friends, they are kind, humble, care for each other and give everything to chess, while making Indian people so proud.”
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