R. Praggnanandhaa Becomes The Only Indian To Qualify For The Candidates Tournament 2026
If he wins, the fight for the World Chess Champion will be between two students from the same school in Chennai
Few decisions define a season like R. Praggnanandhaa’s last-minute dash to London after his World Cup campaign ended at the hands of Daniil Dubov in Goa. By the time he decided to play, the elite invitational at the London Classic was already full.
The Chennai prodigy had to fight it out at the open section of the London FIDE Circuit 2025 instead, where a single slip against a lower-rated opponent could have undone months of effort and closed the door to the World Chess Championship.
It was a gamble for the 19-year-old, and it paid off. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is the 2025 FIDE Circuit winner, and has earned a spot in the eight-player Candidates Tournament 2026.
If he wins the Candidates, he will earn the right to challenge the current World Chess Champion Gukesh Dommaraju at the World Chess Championship 2026.
Praggnanandhaa’s London performance was the final act of a season built on steady brilliance. He had already made waves with victories at Tata Steel Masters, Superbet Chess Classic Romania, and the UzChess Cup Masters, while also tying for second place at the Sinquefield Cup.
In London, he tied for first with a sharp 7 out of 9, earning 8.17 crucial Circuit points and putting himself safely out of reach of Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, his closest challenger. Abdusattorov won the elite invitational at London, collecting 19.62 points, and sits third on the leaderboard with 71.61. Praggnanandhaa leads with 115.17, while Anish Giri, currently second in the rankings, has already qualified for the Candidates via the Grand Swiss. Even if Abdusattorov swept the upcoming FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships, he could not catch the Indian Grandmaster.
Next March, Cyprus will host the eight-player Candidates Tournament, and Praggnanandhaa will stand among giants Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, Matthias Bluebaum, Javokhir Sindarov, Wei Yi, and Andrey Esipenko, all players with very different styles, have already claimed their spots. The eighth place will go to the player with the highest average classical rating between August 2025 and January 2026, as long as the minimum game requirement is met.
For India, Praggnanandhaa carries the flag solo in the Open section. This is a drop from last year, where three Indians - Pragg, Gukesh Dommaraju and Vidit Gujrathi - competed for the WCC spot in Toronto. The women’s field, however, is still going strong, with Divya Deshmukh, Koneru Humpy, and Vaishali Rameshbabu making their way to the 2026 Women's Candidates Tournament.
If Praggnanandhaa wins the Candidates, the fight for the World Chess Champion will be between fellow students of the same school. Pragg and Gukesh both attended the Velammal Vidyalaya in Chennai, and spent their early years crossing paths long before the world of them as the grandmasters they would later become. If all goes well for Praggnanandhaa at the Candidates Tournament 2026, the story of these two prodigies will write itself: from shared lessons and sparring sessions to the world’s most prestigious chess board, the stakes at the 2026 WCC could not be higher.