Praggnanandhaa becomes India’s new No. 1 after UzChess Cup win, Gukesh slips to second

Indian sensation Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa has become the new India No. 1 in classical chess after winning the UzChess Cup Masters tournament. The 19-year-old defeated Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov with the Black pieces in the final round to clinch the title.

Praggnanandhaa becomes new India No. 1

Thanks to this big win, Praggnanandhaa has now jumped to No. 4 in the live world rankings with an impressive Elo rating of 2778.3. He is now ahead of fellow Indians Dommaraju Gukesh, who is ranked 5th with a rating of 2776.6, and Arjun Erigaisi, who is at 6th place with 2775.7.

The five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway is still at the top of the chart with a rating of 2839.2. He is followed by American grandmasters Hikaru Nakamura (2807) and Fabiano Caruana (2784.2).

After Praggnanandhaa clinched his third title of the year, he took to social media to thank everyone for all the support he received before the event.

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“Wrapped up the #UzChessCup Masters with a win in the final round and wins in tie breaks. Tiebreaks were crazy indeed. Grateful for all the support that I have received so far. Onto my next challenge to Croatia,” Praggnanandhaa wrote in a post on X after his victory in Tashkent.

In another post, Praggnanandhaa thanked former world champion Viswanathan Anand, who had congratulated the Indian youngster on his Uzbekistan Cup win. Anand said that out of all of Praggnanandhaa's wins this year, the one in Uzbekistan seemed the least likely, but given the way he made a comeback, he fully deserved to be World No. 4 and India’s No. 1 player.