 A huge win for the Indian Superstar, Pragananda scores an absolutely thrilling victory against former world champion, Wesleyan Toppeler. He joins us in our studio. Pragananda, firstly a big congratulations on this win against Wesleyan. I think. I have to ask you, is this your first time playing against a former world champion in a classical time control? Yeah, I think so. This is my first time. For now I don't recollect any game, but I think it's the first time. Rapid and Blitz, you've played in Tata Steel. In Tata Steel. So how was the preparation for this game when you got to know you're playing Wesleyan, what was the preparation like? Yeah, it was tough to guess where you will go and yeah, I was looking at some lines but I was not looking at this 9 of 6 classical line. So I was just playing on my own. Like I knew some things, but what he played I didn't know that. Right. So at this point I went for Bishabhi too. And he was playing quite fast. Yeah, he knew till this point. And yeah, here I took long time. I was just thinking something like F5. Let me just put that for you. F5 and it doesn't work actually. Even EF5 was possible that that's what he suggested. 9 d5 just 9 c6 c2. But I was mainly worried of Bg5. Yeah, if let's say queen d3 then I think now EF5 was even stronger. Or even some Bb6. But I was considering Bb3. Bb3, Qe3, d4. Now let's say Qf3, dc3, Qa8. Yeah, then first I was thinking Qd4, but then I thought just cb2 was even stronger. Let's just get stuck sometimes. Yeah, Rd1. Yeah, Qc7. And you evaluated as black being fine here. Yeah, it's like now it's the thirdest, nicest Bb7. And I need to bring my queen and EF5, Bb6, c6. And the pawn is still alive on b2. Yeah, I will take care of him. But then he will get E5. E5 pawn. Yeah, it should be good for black. Right. And you took a good 35 minutes for this. Yeah, I don't know why I took so much time. I mean, first of all I was thinking even 9 d1. Like he said, 9 d1 was the Indian solution and maybe it was just should be around equal somehow. So 9 d1 was his prep. So you surprised him. And after Bf2 is the first time he actually started taking some time. Yeah. And yeah, I played Bb6. Also 9c6 was I think even possible. Yeah, I played Bb6. No, but I think black should be fine after 9b4. That's what we analyzed. Just go 9c6. Okay, so reroute the knight. Yeah, there's no much attack for me. But I think EF is kind of a mistake. Right. Because I just get my knight to d5. Yeah, play c4 next. So after EF5 did you feel your positions better? Yeah, of course like here I didn't like now I don't have much attack but it's somewhat I can create some attack. Right. It doesn't feel there's much. But after EF and 9d5 now I think like maybe even already I'm better. And here he went knight b4. Yeah, then just c4 and rook c8 a3. Yeah, he can take cd5 and bishop c5. But I mean here just some rook d1. So you keep these two central pawns and... Yeah, I just played d6 and even just exchange rooks. It looks very pleasant for white. Yeah, it should be better. After knight c6 I just played rook f1. Yeah, here we were trying some rook a8. But just rook a d1 was just stronger. Say if some bishop c5 or queen f4. How? Okay, bishop f2. Yeah, I can do it. And then on knight f6... This knight f6 was a threat throughout. It's in the air once your knight is posted on d5, no? Yeah, it's not easy for black to play these kind of versions. So ef5 was a surprising decision by Wesleyan. Yeah, it's just better for white. Knight a4, not so good I think. Just rook d1, I mean it's dangerous for black. So here he can't take on c4 because you just move your queen to f4 or...? Maybe he can take but I was just thinking queen e2, queen e6. It looks dangerous for black. Right. Maybe there's something even better. Even queen f4 was... If queen a8, then some knight f6 might be there. Yeah, always in the air. Yeah. And then this happened very quickly after this trade here. Yeah, here I think queen h4 might be important because... I'm... It's not easy for him to do anything. If queen a6, then knight f6 comes. Anyway, you've got this because if you take and now it's the same idea with the queen attack. And if he goes king a6, that was thinking like it's a main trade but then rook d1, queen a6... Let's try one. Knight a4, yeah. He can't take queen c4, knight g6 comes. So you win the queen here? Yeah, I was thinking queen a7. First I was... Let me try it. Yeah, I was thinking queen g3, like knight e5, then rook e5, knight g6 comes. Oh nice. So always there are these tricks of winning the queen. But I didn't like... I didn't like queen g3 because he goes rook fd8. Trades off. Because he was thinking like rook d5, if he takes then cd5 but knight d4 was... I like he goes knight e6 then c4 a7. So he stabilizes somewhat here. Yeah, but queen a7 is a good trick for the... And just a6. Let me raise this. He also told this one it's just good for white. I mean if rook c4. Yeah. Or then ef7, of course. So you can't take on f7 and knight e6 is coming next. Yeah, it should be winning somehow. Even queen d8 whichever surprise was because knight fd8 just wins. Yeah, so queen d8 is just... And he took 14 minutes. Yeah, he missed knight fd6 and rook d1. Completely missed this... I mean I'm sure he saw knight fd6 but this idea of rook d1 was probably... Yeah, maybe he missed it, I'm not sure. Because the point is that you can't take instantly because of this queen d4 check. Yeah, after rook d1, I'd say queen c7, ef6, king h8. Then I thought rook d3 was more precise because if he goes rook e8, yeah, rook e8, then rook h3 and he doesn't have rook e1 check. Because of the queen on h4. Yeah, even with the rook on rook d1 check shouldn't be like much problem. Yeah, this is just precise. Knight e5, take the queen f6, knight g6. Yeah, here I can just play slowly but I saw this line h4, h5. But this is very nice because you went for a direct line here and your idea of course if he doesn't play h5 is to just start threatening mate. h5 was forced and rook f1. Here f4 was kind of a first move because... Yeah, I just win f5 pawn. Oh, g4. Did you see g4 when you played h4? Was this your... Yeah, I was starting from here because I mean this looks forcing. Yeah, and he can't take fg3 because of the f75. Yeah, if hg4 then h5 comes. Even rook d3 works. I mean it's kind of a main thing because... And also here if rook d3, hg6 I'm actually in a king time but there should be some other way to win but I can just go king d2. Yeah. Then rook f1, queen h5. Let's just have that. On the board. Very nice. So you saw this whole variation on the board. Yeah, also rook d3. I mean I need to see this one. King f2, rook c4. Yeah, that I just ran with the king. It's sort of problems. Yeah. Rook c2, king e1. Okay, and there are no perpetuals. Yeah, I took here. And it just collapses because now he doesn't have enough material to defend. I just go rook e1. It is only... A nice game also. A nice result but also a well-played game. Yeah, I think in the opening I didn't play so well but after the opening, like after e5 it was okay. Brog, now you lost the first game and after that you had five wins in a row. What's going on? I don't know. I'm just like playing one game I think. Right. Well, thank you very much and before you go I have to ask you that now there are... We've crossed the halfway mark in the tournament going into the last four games. You're one of our leaders at the event currently. Are you thinking about that or just going to continue with the strategy of one game at a time? Yeah, there are more four rounds. I mean still it's not clear that I'm a leader but at least I'm at five points. In the top back, five out of six you have to be happy with that score, Brog. Yeah, it is good. All right. Well, we really enjoy having you in the studio telling us our games and we look forward to more. All the best for the remaining games. Thanks, Frag.