The calm and positional Ruy Lopez opening was on board in Round 3 and Vidit Gujrathi, playing White, had just dropped his bishop back to the a4 square on the fourth move. Praggnanandhaa, who sat opposite him, paused, and then to the shock of his opponent, commentators and everyone watching bleary-eyed back in India did something completely audacious and wholly unexpected.

He pushed his pawn to f5?! – a rare, hyper-aggressive variation with a somewhat dubious reputation known as the Delayed Schliemann, which has perhaps never been played before at a Candidates tournament. The 18-year-old darted a quick look at his opponent to gauge his surprise and the evaluation bar instantly jumped in favour of White.

“I’m speechless! I’m supposed to be a Ruy Lopez expert but I definitely haven’t seen this position in the last 25 years!”, gasped Peter Leko, commentator and 2004 World Championship challenger. Vidit retreated into thought. To combat a variation like this one successfully, White would have to be armed with the knowledge of its intricacies and nuances. It’s tough to unspool them on the go over the board.

As complexities deepened, Vidit ended up eating into his time a fair bit. Praggnanandhaa had got his opponent exactly where he wanted and was himself up 40 minutes on the clock in the opening. Handshakes were exchanged in 45 moves and the Indian teen rang in his first win at his debut Candidates.

Among Praggnanandhaa’s strongest suits is his calculation skills, which explains his love for obscure variations and crazy positions. Ones that require opponents to be ready with precise refutation. It also makes sense in modern chess where the main lines have already been explored threadbare by all players.

“Against someone like Vidit who’s not as strong in this area (calculation) it makes sense too,” said chess coach Jacob Aagard, who was brought in to help develop Praggnanandhaa's positional understanding before the pandemic break. “Praggnananadhaa is always excited to play, and work, and it’s hard to run him out of energy. He’s shown that he’s not in Toronto to learn or enjoy the experience, but to fight for first place with all he’s got.”

“I wanted to play something interesting after yesterday’s game (loss against Gukesh). This is a very interesting line but White is probably better if it plays accurately,” Praggnanandhaa said, indicating both the double-edged nature of the variation and his devil-may-care risk-taking abilities.

Praggnanandhaa has a terrific team in place to help with the creative preparation – former world No.4 Peter Svidler is accompanying him in Toronto, long-time mentor RB Ramesh is working out of Chennai and a couple of others are assisting remotely. Aside from the work his team puts together, the teen also enjoys working on his own and stumbling into discoveries. “I do a lot of work alone,” Praggnanandhaa told HT ahead of the Candidates.

“Working with engines is just a lot of different things. Some positions that we think are bad, it shows okay and some positions that we think are okay it shows as completely bad. So, it’s really exciting.”

In his previous two rounds – against Alireza Firouzja and fellow Indian D Gukesh -- as well Praggnanandhaa brought the fireworks. Against Gukesh with White, he blitzed moves flexing his preparation and went on a spree of pawn sacrifices, giving up three pawns inside the first 15 moves. “I would be shaking in my seat if somebody sacrificed three pawns against me and spent no time doing it,” GM Robert Hess remarked. It was props to Gukesh’s resilience that he managed to carve a win out of that game. In the opening round, Praggnanandhaa matched Firouzja in imaginative play and managed to spot a brilliant counter-sacrifice that brought on the perpetual check.

Three rounds of the Candidates tournament have been played so far and Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Gukesh lead the standings with two points apiece. It’s still early days and a lot could change in the rounds ahead. But if any prizes are being given out for sheer gutsy play, staying off the beaten path, playing for a win with both colours and making it worthwhile for chess fans to forgo sleep to follow the tournament, Praggnanandhaa would probably sweep them all.

Read Also: shubman gill's stumps rattled, game-changing 15th over: how rookie yash thakur steered unlikely lsg comeback vs gt