Auto giant Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra has decided to gift an XUV4OO electric vehicle to the parents of chess grandmaster Praggnanandhaa in order to encourage parents to introduce their children to a cerebral game like chess instead of wasting their time in frivolous video games.

Anand Mahindra, who has a huge following on social media, was urged by several people on X (formerly Twitter) to gift the popular Thar SUV to Praggnanandhaa.

Replying to one of those tweets he wrote: “Appreciate your sentiment, Krishlay, and many, like you, have been urging me to gift a Thar to @rpragchess. But I have another idea. I would like to encourage parents to introduce their children to chess and support them as they pursue this cerebral game (despite the surge in popularity of video games!) It’s an investment in a better future for our planet, just like EVs. And so, I think we should gift an XUV4OO EV to the parents of @rpragchess, Shrimati Nagalakshmi, and Shri Rameshbabu, who deserve our gratitude for nurturing their son’s passion and for giving him their untiring support.

Praggnanandhaa’s mother is known to accompany him on all his tours to take dedicated care of the youngster which includes cooking special meals for him.

The 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa is the youngest ever grandmaster and only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to enter the final of the World Cup chess tournament where he finally went down fighting to World No1 Magnus Carlsen of   Norway. However, Praggnanandhaa has beaten Carlsen multiple times in earlier encounters.

Pragg had stormed into the finals of the World Cup chess tournament after a stunning victory over world number 2 Fabiano Caruana in the semifinal at Baku in Azerbaijan. Pragg had shown his class in the earlier rounds as well when he beat world number 3 and five-time US chess champion Hikaru Nakamura.

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa was born on 10 August 2005 in Chennai and got the Grandmaster title at the age of 12.