Credit: X
18-year old Indian Grandmaster Pranav Venkatesh clinched the World Junior Chess Championship (U-20) on 7th March 2025, in Petrovac, Montenegro. He secured the title with an unbeaten score of 9 out of 11, comprising seven victories and four draws, leading a field of 157 participants, including 12 grandmasters. This victory makes Pranav the fourth Indian to win the World Junior title, following in the footsteps of Viswanathan Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, and Abhijeet Gupta. Venkatesh is a mentee at the West Bridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA). In fact, the legendary Indian chess champion Viswanathan Anand congratulated the young grandmaster after his recent victory.
Anand put out a post on his official X account praising the recent form of Pranav Venkatesh. He said, “He is very meticulous in his work and constantly analyzes his own games, comes back with suggestions and takes feedback.” Anand added by saying, “You join a very prestigious line of World Junior Championships.” referring to his own old achievement of becoming the World Junior Chess Champion in 1987, which was also his moment of arrival to the global chess stage.
The youngster has had a glorious career so far
Born on October 13, 2006, Pranav began playing chess at the age of six. He achieved the Grandmaster title in 2022, becoming India's 75th grandmaster and the 27th grandmaster from the state of Tamil Nadu. Notably, Pranav competed in the 38th edition of the European Chess Club Cup with Offerspill Sjakklubb led by Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. Pranav had a great tournament, winning 5 out of his 7 matches; defeating Jorden van Foreest in a crucial penultimate round match and saving his team.
His impressive performance earned him a tweet from Magnus Carlsen which read, ‘Pranav is buddy and buddy is Pranav.’ Pranav's recent triumph adds to India's growing prominence in the global chess arena, following successes by other young talents like D Gukesh and Divya Deshmukh.
