At next year’s Candidates, Praggnanandhaa will be the only Indian in contention in the open section
2025 has been one of the best years in the career of India’s R Praggnanandhaa. He claimed trophies at the Tata Steel Masters event in Wijk aan Zee at the start of the year before following it up with titles in Superbet Chess Classic Romania, UzChess Cup Masters, and London Chess Classic in the open section recently, results that have propelled him to claim his second ticket to the Candidates tournament next year. The 20-year-old, currently ranked No 7 in the world, also finished second in the Stepan Avagyan Memorial tournament and the 12th Sinquefield Cup.
What does he chalk this run of results to?
He says he’s been more ambitious this year than previous ones. And then he credits his contemporaries, world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and Arjun Erigiasi, for inspiring him with their own exploits last year.
“I’m more ambitious this year. I want to win tournaments when I’m playing. And I’m able to do it. Besides this there is no one specific reason. These results are also a result of the hard work that I’ve been putting in for years. I think that also showed,” Praggnanandhaa told a select group of journalists on the sidelines of the Global Chess League in Mumbai, where he’s representing the Alpine SG Pipers.
Ahead of the third edition of GCL in Mumbai, Pragg was in Dharavi as the chief guest at the Dharavi Chess Championship on Friday. (FIDE/MichalWalusza)
Ask him how that ambition developed and Praggnanandhaa replied: “I didn’t have a great year in 2024. So, I wanted to improve on my results this year and also seeing Gukesh winning the World Chess Championship or Arjun getting to 2800 rating certainly inspired me to push myself in critical moments this year.”
