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‘Won’t be a normal match’: Vishy Anand teases epic Chennai return for World Chess Championship if Praggnanandhaa wins Candidates

Chennai did host a World Championship event in 2013, when Anand was the reigning champion and battling a young Magnus Carlsen. It was at that world championship that Carlsen had won the first of his five crowns.

3 min readJan 16, 2026 10:02 PM IST

Viswanathan Anand (left) and R Praggnanandhaa at Tata Steel Chess India tournament earlier this month. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)

Two years after missing out on hosting the World Chess Championship despite having two cities (New Delhi and Chennai) bidding for it, India might end up hosting the World Championship later this year. Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, who is also a Deputy President at the global governing body of chess, FIDE, has said that there is a possibility that India could host the upcoming World Championship, where Gukesh will defend his title, in case Praggnanandhaa makes it through from the Candidates that will be held in March-April this year.

Just like Anand, both Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa are based out of Chennai.

“Whoever wins the Candidates, they will experience a kind of growth and will be dangerous in the World Championship. I would assume that if Pragg qualifies, that will be emotionally charged for both of them,” Anand said at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival on Friday where he was promoting his new book ‘Lightening Kid: 64 winning lessons from the boy who became five-time world champion’.

“It will not be a normal match. It may even happen in Chennai. It may, I mean, they are both in the same school, same this, same that. And you know, the reaction of everyone around them, that will be very emotionally charged, but probably balanced because it’s about the same for both,” added the 56-year-old.

Viswanathan Anand Praggnanandhaa Niemann Tata Steel Chess

R Praggnanandhaa and Viswanathan Anand at Tata Steel Chess India. (Tata Steel Chess)

The 20-year-old Praggnanandhaa faces a fight to make it to the world championship, with seven men standing in his path at the Candidates: Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, Wei Yi, Javokhir Sindarov, Andrey Esipenko, and Matthias Blubaum.

Chennai did host a World Championship event in 2013, when Anand was the reigning champion and battling a young Magnus Carlsen. It was at that world championship that Carlsen had won the first of his five crowns.

“I think with the American players, Caruana and Nakamura, there are several plots here. You could make more of a rivalry. Those guys will try to play mind games. Also, they’re much older. But with the other players, I think, it is essentially neutral. It’s like Javokhir Sindarov or Matthias Bluebaum, someone who somehow gets there. I mean, not that they’re likely qualifiers, but if they get there, there’s no emotional noise,” he added.