Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is now India's no.1 player in classical chess, after his third title of the year last week at the UzChess Cup 2025. It's a bit bizarre to talk about the resurgence of someone who's as young as Praggnanandhaa is (19), but that is exactly what 2025 has been for the Grandmaster from Chennai.
At the end of last year, Praggnanandhaa had told ESPN that he was unhappy with the quality of his game in the second half of 2024, and that he was working on improving that with the help of his team, led by coach RB Ramesh. After winning three high-level titles this year - Tata Steel Chess Masters, Superbet Chess Classic and UzChess Cup - it can safely be said that Praggnanandhaa is once again at the top of his game, and only getting better.
However, for the moment he's not too bothered by the India no.1 ranking, or his new status as the world no.4. "That can change when any of us play just one game, I am just one point above Gukesh, so that doesn't mean much" he said in a chat to ESPN earlier this week.
But so much has changed, in terms of Praggnanandhaa's results. From a chess perspective though, he hasn't done too much different, he said. The big change has been in his mental approach - the desire to fight to win games, and to keep pushing even in the toughest of situations, not just within games, but also in tournaments.
That was personified by his win at the UzChess Cup. With just two rounds to play, he was 1.5 points behind leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and had to play arguably his toughest opponents in the competition - Arjun Erigaisi and Abdusattorov himself.
"I wasn't even thinking about winning the tournament, I just wanted to play a good game against Arjun," Praggnanandhaa said. He did exactly that, beating Erigaisi, and then had a further boost when he saw that other results had gone his way too. Javokhir Sindarov and Abdusattorov were both in his grasp, as long as Sindarov drew in the final round as well. That went his way, and he beat Abdusattorov to set up a three-way tie-break, that he eventually won.
It's another pattern of this year for Praggnanandhaa, he's proven to be almost unbeatable in tie-breaks, with faster time controls. He beat world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in the blitz tie-breaks at the Tata Steel Masters in January, and then at the Superbet Classic in Romania, he won a three-way tie break against Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
His prowess in tie-breaks is also something that he puts down to his mental approach of being ready for the fight, while also acknowledging that luck played an important role as well, particularly at the UzChess Cup, where he came back from losing positions against both Abdusattorov and Sindarov in the tie-breaks.
More than winning those tie-breaks, Praggnanandhaa remembers fondly the route he took to get to them, which was anything but easy. He beat Erigaisi with black pieces in Uzbekistan to give himself an outside chance before the final round. In Wijk Aan Zee at the Tata Steel Masters, he took home a big win with black pieces against Fabiano Caruana in the 11th round out of 13, which enabled him to stay within touching distance of the then leader Gukesh.
The new, mentally stronger Praggnanandhaa, supported by Adani Sportsline, is now sitting comfortably atop the FIDE Circuit 2025 standings too. If he manages to keep his spot on top, he will qualify for the 2026 FIDE Candidates tournament through the FIDE Circuit. However, he isn't leaving anything to chance. He knows that there is a long time left in the year, and plenty of possibility for that to change. The FIDE Grand Swiss and FIDE World Cup (where he finished second to Magnus Carlsen in 2023) later in the year present big opportunities to directly qualify for the Candidates, and Praggnanandhaa is well-placed to make a push for those.
There's plenty of chess left to be played before that, though. Praggnanandhaa's schedule for the rest of the year is fairly packed. "I would like some rest, but it doesn't look like I am going to get it," he said.
Before the Grand Swiss in September, he will be playing at the Grand Chess Tour event in Croatia starting this week, and is then off to St. Louis next month for the Sinquefield Cup, with a Freestyle Chess tournament and the eSports World Cup coming in between that as well.
He's been signed by Team Liquid for that eSports World Cup in Riyadh later this month. If he manages to get past the qualifying rounds and get to the main event, he will be sharing space with teammates Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, and that is an experience he is looking forward to, although he reminds this writer that before thinking about that, he has a qualifying tournament to win.
The big priority is, of course, the Candidates. As it stands, he is well placed to get there. But if the last year has taught him anything, it is that form can be fickle, so he needs to continue to play his best chess, and fight as hard as he's done in big tournaments this year, to stand a chance of getting to the Candidates, and eventually becoming the challenger to Gukesh's crown.