Praggnanandhaa dominates FIDE Circuit 2025, qualifies for next year’s Candidates Event

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa won the FIDE Circuit 2025 on Monday. He will be the only Indian male representing in the next year’s Candidates tournament after securing the qualification.

FIDE shared a post on Twitter about Praggnanandhaa’s qualification and praised the young Grandmaster from Chennai for being the most successful male player from India in 2025.

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“Praggnanandhaa R. has won the FIDE Circuit 2025, securing a spot in the 2026 Candidates Tournament! Congratulations to @rpraggnachess, who deservedly earned one of the eight slots in the 2026 Candidates,” FIDE said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“The young Indian has been the best FIDE Circuit player throughout the year, winning the Tata Steel Masters, Superbet Chess Classic Romania, UzChess Cup Masters, and London Chess Classic Open, and finishing second in the Stepan Avagyan Memorial and 12th Sinquefield Cup,” FIDE further wrote in its post.

Pragg finished the FIDE Circuit 2025 with a score of 115.17. Anish Giri of the Netherlands secured the second position with 81.18, with Nodirbek Abdusattorov scoring 71.61, ending third. Fabiano Caruana of the USA (65.55) and Matthias Bluebaum of Germany (83.94) were fourth and fifth, respectively.

In the eight-player field for the Candidates 2026, Praggnanandhaa is the seventh player joining Dutchman Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana of the US, Matthias Bluebaum of Germany, Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan, Wei Yi of China, and Andrey Esipenko of Russia.

The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 is scheduled to take place from March 28 to April 16 at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus. The tournament will happen concurrently with the Women’s Candidates Tournament.

It will be a historic moment for Indian chess on the global stage, as three Indian women, Divya Deshmukh, Koneru Humpy, and R. Vaishali, will be representing India in the single Women’s Candidates Tournament, with Praggnanandhaa being the sole male representation.

The winner will play against the reigning World Champion Dommaraju Gukesh in the World Chess Championship Final Match later in 2026. The date and venue of the final match will be decided later. Dommaraju became the youngest-ever World Chess Champion in December 2024 by defeating Ding Liren.

The eighth spot will be filled by the player with the highest six-month average rating based on FIDE Standard Rating Lists from August 1, 2025, till January 1, 2026. The players should have played in at least 40 games, including at least 15 games in any of the six consecutive rating lists calculated for FIDE Standard Rating Lists from February 1, 2025, till January 1, 2026.