The language-learning platform Duolingo is running a marketing campaign to promote its new chess course in India. The campaign features 20-year-old Indian GM Praggnanandhaa R in a photo shoot with Duolingo.

Agency Talented developed the campaign. The advertisement features the grandmaster’s suit and setting in the brand’s color – green. Billboards with Praggnanandhaa and the Duolingo mascot are already installed in the grandmaster’s hometown of Chennai and across India.

Talented

Talented

Indian advertising agency

“Praggnanandhaa deserves to be portrayed as the force he is, but as never seen before: iconic, commanding, and unmistakably stylish. Those who noticed the Madras Checks in his wardrobe have correctly read them as a deliberate nod to Tamil Nadu – his roots, and the land that has given India so many grandmasters. Conceptualizing a shoot like this meant stepping outside familiar territory, as chess has rarely been framed through an editorial lens. The fact that this avatar has surprised the internet as much as it has only means it was long overdue.”

Duolingo launched a free chess course in beta in April 2025, which officially left beta in June 2025. The course includes step-by-step lessons, interactive puzzles, and mini-matches.

Credit: Talented/Duolingo