NEW DELHI: As Russian Grandmaster Daniil Dubov, rated 2674, outsmarted India's 2768-rated R Praggnanandhaa last week, it wasn’t his gameplay that captured eyeballs as much as the boasting he did after the game: "Preparing for two classical games against Pragg took me 10 minutes with the phone altogether. I didn’t even use my laptop." And he didn't stop there: "People don’t like it, but then suddenly, when I face Pragg and he’s someone who probably spends day and night looking at stuff, he still fails to pose a single problem with white. So maybe it’s not about me. It’s probably about chess here." For the 20-year-old from Chennai, the words may have stung more than the result that sent him out in Round 4, just short of the pre-quarterfinals at the FIDE World Cup 2025 in Goa. Bu

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