How is R Praggnanandhaa placed as far as qualification for next year’s Candidates Championship is concerned? He is the only Indian with a chance to make it to the eight-player event, the winner of which will earn the right to challenge D Gukesh in the World Championship bout.
Pragg is the runaway leader in the FIDE Circuit 2025. The topper of this one gets a Candidates berth. With few tournaments remaining this year, it’s fair to say that he has almost made the cut. The catch is, there is this ‘almost’ attached to it. To put it in perspective, the 20-year-old will have to flop big time and his nearest rival has to win everything to overtake him. Chances of that happening are slim. Mathematically, however, it is possible.
After three Indians making it to the Candidates in 2024 and the Indian team winning the Olympiad gold in the open and women’s sections, followed by Gukesh’s triumph at the World Championship, expectations rose. In the women’s section, Divya Deshmukh, Koneru Humpy and R Vaishali have qualified for the Candidates. All eyes are now on Vaishali’s brother.
Pragg is jointly leading the field in the open section of the London Chess Classic. Two more rounds are to be played and if he wins it, his place in the Candidates is guaranteed. Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov is his closest competitor at the moment and he is likely to win the Elite section in London. He will also have to win one of the titles in the World Rapid and Blitz Championship later this month and finish near the top in the other to get past Pragg.
For that to happen, Pragg has to fare miserably in the games he will play this year. As the winner of three titles in 2025, who also came close to winning on a couple of other occasions, he is unlikely to suffer a steep slip. He has deliberately chosen the open section in London because his chances of succeeding there are higher. He is the top seed and he would have been the top seed in the Elite section as well. But his opponents in that section would have been stronger. That’s why he picked the open section and he looks on course.
Overshadowed by peers Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi last year, Pragg has been a different player in 2025. Unquestionably the best Indian player of this year, he has followed a plan. The Candidates is his goal and he has stuck to that by meticulously collecting the points on the FIDE Circuit. At present, his tally is 107.00. The next four players have qualified for the Candidates from other channels. The others are way behind and need a miracle of sorts to beat Pragg. Vincent Keymer of Germany has 55.83 and Abdusattorov 51.99.
For all practical purposes, Pragg is there. But as it goes in sports, it’s not over until it’s over. Even if it’s just a mathematical possibility of him getting eliminated, there is a possibility. The good thing is, it’s in his own hands. He doesn’t have to depend on anyone else. If he does his job properly, he is through.
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