Fide Candidates: India's lone representative Praggnanandhaa out of form but impossible to rule out

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is no stranger to the big stage. He wouldn’t have been among the top players, not just in India but across the world, had he not proven his worth in major events. However, the 2026 Fide Candidates tournament, which gets underway in Cyprus on Sunday, is set to be a different ballgame altogether for Pragg.

The tournament, after all, will have the 20-year-old as the sole Indian representative, something that Praggnanandhaa largely isn’t quite used to when it comes to playing major events across the world over the last four years.

Pragg was one of three Indians at the previous Candidates tournament in Toronto two years ago, and had to contend with a fifth-place finish while watching fellow Chennai resident D Gukesh make history. It was a similar story at the 2023 World Cup in Baku, where he was one of 10 Indians in action and would seal his place at the Candidates with a runner-up finish, losing to then-champion Magnus Carlsen in the final.

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And at the 2025 Tata Steel Chess in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, Praggnanandhaa had pulled off the biggest victory of his career so far by winning the prestigious event ahead of Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi, beating the former in tie-breaks a little over a month after his historic World Championship triumph.

This time, however, Praggnanandhaa enters the 2026 ‘Open’ Candidates as the country’s only hope at setting up a historic all-Indian World Championship final against Gukesh later this year.

Both ‘Pragg’ and Arjun had failed to secure their Candidates qualification at the Grand Swiss and the World Cup in late 2025 – the two events offering five out of eight spots. Praggnanandhaa, however, had maintained himself at the top of the 2025 Fide Circuit leaderboard with a consistent run last year as well as by maximising his participation in tournaments during the eligible time period, and finished No 1 with a considerable lead.

Praggnanandhaa 's poor form and fierce competition

Will the Fide Candidates have an Indian winner for the second time in as many editions, and only the third in its history, the legendary Viswanathan Anand being the only other player to have won this event?

It would have been a hard no for Praggnanandhaa if his recent form is to be taken into account. The Indian Grandmaster’s form, after all, has tanked in recent months, going downhill from the second half of 2025. He had hit rock bottom at the Tata Steel Chess, where he finished 11th out of 14 competitors with just one victory in 13 rounds after entering as the defending champion.

As for the competition he faces, Praggnanandhaa is up against Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, ranked second and third in the world, respectively, with the latter considered by some as the strongest player in the world after Magnus Carlsen.

Five-time champion Carlsen expects one of the two American heavyweights to win the Candidates and challenge Gukesh for the world title, with a majority of other experts picking Caruana, who had won the event in 2018 and challenged Carlsen in the World Championship showdown, losing in tie-breaks.

And it’s not just Caruana and Nakamura who pose a threat, with Grand Swiss champion Anish Giri and World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov just as capable of pulling off what Gukesh did two years ago.

Also Read | How Praggnanandhaa stacks up against Caruana, Nakamura and other Candidates' opponents

To describe the path to the dream all-Indian final against Gukesh as difficult would be an understatement, but it certainly is not impossible. And chess coach Srinath Narayanan, who was the non-playing captain of the Indian ‘Open’ team at the 2024 Olympiad, had recently claimed that Praggnanandhaa’s recent form should not be taken too seriously, for players usually don’t exhibit their full set of tricks before a major event.

A timely break for Praggnanandhaa

Let’s also not forget the fact that Praggnanandhaa’s poor form might also have been the outcome of his playing one event after another non-stop, which can take a toll mentally as well as physically. He has not participated in any event – over-the-board or online – since Tata Steel Chess concluded on 1 February, and it’s been more than 50 days into Pragg’s extended break – the longest he has gone without any chess action in years.

Then again, the timing of the break could be crucial to Praggnanandhaa’s chances of regaining his old touch and coming back stronger than ever in what is considered the toughest chess tournament outside the World Championship. Timely breaks, after all, can help reset one’s mind and allow the energy levels to be replenished, and are crucial in the life of a professional sportsperson, even in chess.

Praggnanandhaa faces Giri in the opening round of the 2026 Candidates and will be eyeing a winning start in the double round-robin tournament. And if he needs an extra dose of motivation ahead of the tournament, Praggnanandhaa simply needs to remind himself that he was the first member of India’s ‘golden generation’ who had risen to stardom, only to see Gukesh and Arjun surge ahead of him.

He needs to tell himself that it’s his time to shine, and there’s no better way to stand on top of the chess world than by taking the crown off his good friend Gukesh.