‘Candidates will be completely different for Praggnanandhaa’: Indian Grandmaster's chances decoded by Srinath Narayanan

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa isn't exactly a favourite heading into the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament, which gets underway just three days from now at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus.

Pragg, for starters, is up against American heavyweights Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, who are ranked second and third respectively in the world with the latter the leading favourite to challenge D Gukesh at the FIDE World Championship. Let's also not leave out the likes of Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri and Uzbekistani GM Javokhir Sindarov – the latter currently in red-hot form after winning the FIDE World Cup in Goa in November.

At the same time, former Indian No 1 Praggnanandhaa is going through the kind of slump that has also affected Gukesh. While the 20-year-old was off to a flying start in 2025 by winning the Tata Steel Chess, later adding the Grand Chess Tour Superbet Romania and UzChess Cup titles to his collection, his form gradually declined in the second half of the year.

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Praggnanandhaa had endured one his most disappointing campaigns at the Tata Steel Chess recently, finishing 11th out of 14 competitors after entering as the defending champion.

'Serious contender for winning the entire event'

Indian GM and chess coach Srinath Narayanan, however, isn't reading too much into Praggnanandhaa's recent form and expects a different version of the world No 13 to turn up at the Candidates, where he will be making his second consecutive appearance.

Also Read | From Nakamura and Caruana to Praggnanandhaa, how top contenders are preparing for Candidates

In an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Srinath – the non-playing captain of the Indian 'Open' team that won gold at the 2024 Olympiad – feels that players generally don't reveal their ideas before such a major tournament, which is why Pragg could come back stronger than ever.

"I think the Candidates will be completely different because typically before such major events, people generally don't reveal their ideas. They try out different things and they played mainly as a training tournament to keep in shape rather than going at their full steam," Srinath told this website.

"So, I think the Candidates will be entirely different. There will see all his best opening preparation and all the new things that he has been preparing these last few months. And his play will be much better then," he continued.

Indian GM R Praggnanandhaa will be making his second consecutive appearance at the FIDE Candidates tournament. AFP

And while Srinath feels 'Pragg' is a serious candidate to win the tournament and setup a historic all-Indian World Championship showdown with Gukesh, he expects him to finish in the upper half at the very least.

Praggnanandhaa had finished fifth out of eight players in the 2024 edition in Toronto, in which Gukesh had emerged triumphant with 9 points while the trio of Nakamura, Caruana and Ian Nepomniachthi finished joint-second with 8.5 points.

"I am pretty confident that he will finish in the upper half. And I think he is a serious contender for winning the entire event. But of course, winning the Candidates itself is a very low percentage by itself because of how close all the other contenders are," Srinath continued.

Fabi and Hikaru 'first among equals' in a level-playing field

Srinath, however, did acknowledge the fact that Caruana and Nakamura have the upper hand heading into the tournament – not as 'outright' favourites but 'first among equals'.

"It will be a level playing field. But within the field, they definitely start as slight favourites. As a first among equals of sorts. So, it's not the kind of a favourite where there is a Bumrah and there are other bowlers. But it's closer than that. But still, he is a bit ahead. They both are a bit ahead," the 32-year-old added.

Also Read | Praggnanandhaa placed in third tier of Candidates 2026 competitors by French GM Vachier-Lagrave

The 2026 Candidates Tournament takes place from 28 March to 16 April, with FIDE sticking to Cyprus as the host nation despite concerns over security in the island nation due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The Women's Candidates will also be taking place simultaneously, and features two Indians – GMs Divya Deshmukh and R Vaishali – unlike the 'Open' tournament where Praggnanandhaa is the country's lone representative.

The women's edition originally had three Indians until veteran GM Koneru Humpy withdrew due to security concerns, with FIDE replacing her with Ukraine's Anna Muzychuk.