chennai it was a hobby acquired from his sister but r praggnanandhaa made chess his lifes calling pretty early on picking up the nuances of the game at an age when most kids are classified as toddlersall of 3 when he took to the sport after his elder sister vaishali was introduced to it to wean her away from watching too many cartoon shows on tv the currently 16 praggnanandhaa is now the next big thing in indian chessread alsovictory against magnus carlsen one of the best till date for me praggnanandhaasixteenyearold r praggnanandhaa isnt an unknown commodity in indian chess circles but what he did in the early hours of monday made the world of 64 squares sit up and take notei was just enjoying myself says teen gm praggnanandhaa after stunning world no 1 carlsen in airthings mastersteenaged indian grandmaster r praggnanandhaa stunned world no 1 magnus carlsen in the eighth round of the airthings masters online rapid chess tournament becoming only the third from the country to clinch a victory over the norwegian superstartouted as the one for the future when he became an international master at the tender age of 10 years and nine months in 2016 praggu as he is fondly called by his friends and coaches has made giant strides and on sunday he notched up the biggest win of his career by upstaging world number one magnus carlsenit was a special feat considering that he is only the third indian after the great viswanathan anand and p harikrishna to beat the norwegian superstar who is the reigning world championfor praggnanandhaa the journey began when life was a bit of a blur for most youngstershis polioafflicted bank employee father rameshbabu and mother nagalakshmi were worried that vaishali was spending too much time in front of the tvthe intent behind introducing her to chess was to wean her away from her favourite cartoon showswho would have known that it would end up inspiring a wizard of the sport at home as praggnanandhaas interest in vaishalis new hobby became his lifes callingwe had introduced vaishali to chess so as to cut down on her tv viewing habits as a child as it happened the two children liked the game and decided to pursue it rameshbabu recalledwe are happy the two were able to make it big in the sport more importantly we are delighted that they are enjoying themselves by playing the sport he saidnagalakshmi is the one who accompanies the two to tournaments and he follows their games from homecredit goes to my wife who accompanies them to tournaments and is very supportive she takes great care of the two he said acknowledging the role of their mother in their risethe 19yearold vaishali who is a woman gm said her interest in chess intensified after she won a tournament and soon her little brother too took a liking to the sporti used to watch a lot of cartoons when i was six years or so