Duolingo finds its next move in chess with Praggnanandhaa at the board

New Delhi: Duolingo India collaborated with Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the country’s teenage chess sensation, for a campaign built around a deadpan mock interview titled “Bharat Got Blatant.” 

The interviewer bluntly asks: “Can chess make you a sports star?” Cue an inner monologue that cuts through Praggnanandhaa’s world, his rise, the frenzy of fans, the commentary culture, and the way chess has unexpectedly become a spectator sport in India. The creative is cheeky and self-aware and positions chess not as a nerd niche but as a legitimate sporting identity.

View this post on Instagram

The hook, however, isn’t just cultural validation; it’s Duolingo selling a chess course. The company recently added chess to its learning universe as a full-fledged course, treating it as a “logic language” built on openings, notation, strategies, and pattern recognition. 

Learners are trained to read chess the way Duolingo teaches Spanish or Japanese: through levels, puzzles, practical exercises, and repeated pattern input. Lessons break down the fundamentals, pieces, movement, and board notation and then move to tactical ideas, opening principles, and scenarios. 

A chess prodigy selling an app that teaches chess feels less absurd than it would have a decade ago, and Duolingo knows the joke is exactly what makes it sticky.