When the year started, all eyes in chess were on D Gukesh. The world champion was the talking point. Quietly, another player from Chennai was plotting a comeback.
Nearly eight months, three tournament-wins and some healthy gains in the world rankings later, R Praggnanandhaa is one of the players of 2025. He is hanging in at the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in the US, at joint second after Round 6, with three more to go. Gukesh is fifth in the field of 10 players. Five of the world’s top 10 are taking part in the event.
Pragg is gradually and confidently moving towards his primary goal for the year, that is securing a berth in Candidates 2026. Fabiano Caruana of the US has already qualified for the eight-player event, the winner of which gets to challenge the world champion. Gukesh had won it in 2024, before creating history be dethroning China’s Ding Liren in the World Championship duel.
There are four other routes or ‘paths’, as mentioned by FIDE, of getting there. For Pragg, the best-suited at the moment is Path D — the FIDE Circuit 2025 ranking list. Only the topper of this goes to the Candidates. The player who turned 20 on August 10 is sitting atop that table with 86.28 Circuit points. He is almost 35 points ahead of Anish Giri of the Netherlands, against whom he has lost twice this year. It seems to be a good enough lead, but it’s not over until it’s over. Incidentally, Caruana secured passage by topping the Fide Circuit 2024 ranking list, which is Path A. He is the leader at Sinquefield Cup.
Path B is the Grand Swiss event, from where two players make the cut. Path C and the World Cup to be played in India sees the top three advance. Path E is for the player with the best average rating from August 21, 2025, to January 1, 2026. Pragg can qualify from all these channels, but at this point that lead on the FIDE Circuit 2025 ranking list looks impressive. He had finished fifth in the previous edition of the Candidates.
His ability to excel at the top level was seen two years ago at the World Cup, where he lost in the final against Magnus Carlsen. He beat the world No. 1 from Norway last year. But by his own admission and by his standards, this disciple of Grandmaster RB Ramesh had a disappointing Candidates and Olympiad. He still finished the year at 13th in the world rankings.
Having started 2025 with victory in the Tata Steel Masters and followed it up with two more titles, Pragg has moved up to a career-best fourth in the rankings. Gukesh is sixth and Arjun Erigaisi fifth. After being overshadowed by these two in 2024, Pragg has outshone them this year. His consistency has been exceptional, as he finished second and fourth in two other tournaments.
It’s difficult to coax words out of the player who prefers replying in ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Still, in a few interviews earlier this year, he said that he had worked with ‘Ramesh sir’ on certain areas in order to get consistently stronger. There was no elaboration and that can be for understandable reasons. Whatever he may have done, Pragg seems to have chosen the right path.
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