Magnus Carlsen's wife Ella: ‘Magnus says that Praggnanandhaa plays most similar to him'
'All three (Gukesh, Pragg and Arjun) are very different, but Magnus did say that Pragg plays more similarly to him, the most similar to him,' Ella revealed during a ChessBase India live stream during the recent Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour.
Carlsen's admiration for Praggnanandhaa has been known since the FIDE World Cup in 2023, when Pragg had reached the final and lost to Carlsen. But not before he had taken down players like Arjun, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. After one of those conquests, while Pragg was walking off the stage, Carlsen had walked up to him to pat the Indian teenager on the back.
He had later spoken about how at Offerspill, his chess club back home in Norway, there were kids being told by Pragg's long-time guru, RB Ramesh, that they should 'be like Pragg'. That was the catchphrase he had told Pragg after his win over Nakamura in the FIDE World Cup, which had made the Indian smile.
Ella also praised Arjun.
'I saw this like clip of Arjun where he was asked what was his biggest fears growing up and he said 'ghosts'. I really liked that. I thought that was very cute. Arjun is very sweet, like when you talk to him in person. And then like over the board he's just a maniac. He's just out there hunting and going crazy,' Ella said.
This corresponds with something Carlsen had told The Indian Express last year in an interaction. 'Arjun is just a complete mad man at the board. He wants to kill you in every single game. Has crazy preparation and plays extremely ambitiously and that's what makes him very dangerous,' Carlsen had told The Indian Express in May this year.
Ella also spoke about the first time she had met and interacted with Gukesh and his father Rajinikanth. ChessBase India's Sagar Shah recollected that he and his wife were heading for dinner with Gukesh and his father Rajinikanth, when Magnus and Ella pulled up in a car and offered them lift.
'I spoke to Gukesh and his father at Weissenhaus for the first time. They were very sweet,' Ella said.
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