Praggnanandhaa secures Candidates spot as last-gasp entry at London Classic’s open section pays off

Praggnanandhaa secured his spot via the FIDE Circuit route which could have been in some peril if he had not played in London, because the other contender for the spot, Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, had entered the elite event at London Classic. But Pragg tied for first place at the London event by scoring 7/9 in a strong field, which helped him add 8.17 circuit points and put him out of the Uzbek grandmaster’s reach. Abdusattorov’s win at London in the elite invitational section earned him 19.62 circuit points. Praggnanandhaa now has 115.17 points while Abdusattorov is third in the FIDE Circuit leaderboard race with 71.61 points. Anish Giri, who is second in the race, has already qualified via the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament. Pragg winning the title in London means that even if Abdusattorov wins both the year-ending FIDE World Rapid Championship and the FIDE Blitz Championship, he cannot catch the Indian prodigy.

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. 🙏 https://t.co/IdUtdRjXXG

— Praggnanandhaa (@rpraggnachess) December 8, 2025

Pragg was not slotted to play in the London event, but entered it at the last minute after his fourth-round exit from the FIDE World Cup in Goa at the hands of Daniil Dubov. With all slots in the elite invitational event already booked by the time Pragg decided to play, he could only play in the open event, which was a risk in itself since even a draw against a lesser rated opponent would claw away at his points. But it was a risk that he had to take.

“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,” Pragg wrote on his X account.

2025 has seen Praggnanandhaa win the Tata Steel Masters event in Wijk aan Zee at the start of the year before racking up titles in Superbet Chess Classic Romania, UzChess Cup Masters, and London Chess Classic Open. The 20-year-old who is currently ranked No 7 in the world also finished second in the Stepan Avagyan Memorial tournament and 12th Sinquefield Cup.

Praggnanandhaa thus joins American duo Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, Frenchman Matthias Bluebaum, Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov, China’s Wei Yi, and Russia’s Andrey Esipenko in the eight-player Candidates that will finalise the challenger to Gukesh Domaraju at the next world chess championship.

Pragg will now travel to Mumbai to play in the Global Chess League where he will be teammates with two other Candidates contenders Giri and Caruana at the SG Alpine Pipers.