Praggnanandhaa seals spot in 2026 Candidates

young new delhi: amerind grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa has been on a mulct go in the last few months. On Monday, he sealed a berth in his next big target – the 2026 Candidates Tournament, by winning the FIDE Circuit 2025.

The 20-year-old from Chennai had seized the lead in the race in May by overtaking China’s previous world classical champion Ding Liren. He has maintained it throughout the season. By the end of November, his main rivals – Dutch player Anish Giri, American Fabiano Caruana, Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum, and Javokhir Sindarov – had already qualified for the Candidates via other paths. Germany’s Vincent Keymer had no classical events scheduled for the rest of the year, a FIDE release said.

Reacting to the news on X, Praggnanandhaa said, “A long year on the FIDE Circuit, and I’m grateful to earn a place in the 2026 Candidates. Thank you for all the constant support.”

Only Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, who was playing in the points-heavy London Chess Classic Elite, had a theoretical chance to catch up and make it to the eight-man Candidates whose winner will qualify to challenge India’s world champion D Gukesh.

With this in mind, Praggnanandhaa made a last-minute entry into the London Chess Classic Open to clinch his Candidates qualification, regardless of the upcoming FIDE Rapid and Blitz results. He scored 7/9 in a strong field, tying for first place and collecting 8.17 circuit points.

Despite Abdusattorov’s brilliant performance in the London Chess Classic Elite, which produced one of the highest TPRs (Tournament Performance Rating) in the history of chess and netted him 19.62 circuit points, Praggnanandhaa’s result placed him out of reach and punched his ticket to the Candidates.

This will be the second Candidates appearance for Praggnanandhaa. He was in the field in the 2024 edition that Gukesh won to qualify as Challenger and beat Ding in the world championship match in Singapore.

Praggnanandhaa has been a picture of consistency this year. He won the Tata Steel Masters, Superbet Chess Classic Romania and UzChess Cup Masters before the London Chess Classic Open, and finished second in the Stepan Avagyan Memorial and 12th Sinquefield Cup.

Like India No.1 Arjun Erigaisi, he too had hoped to make it to the Candidates by finishing in the top three of the Chess World Cup held in Goa last month. However, the tournament third seed was eliminated in Round 4, losing in the tiebreak to Russia’s Daniil Dubov. Erigaisi’s hopes were dashed after his quarter-finals defeat in the tiebreaks to China’s Wei Yei.

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