‘Do others’ performances have an impact on you?’
At the end of 2024, that was one of the leading questions on coach RB Ramesh’s mind about his ward R Praggnanandhaa, who had just endured a difficult year.
Praggnanandhaa had just seen his peer Gukesh Dommaraju become world champion, as he endured a bout of stagnation throughout that year. There were issues that Ramesh had to speak to him about, both related to his chess and factors surrounding it.
“We are all humans, and we are emotional people,” Ramesh told ESPN on the sidelines of the Chennai Grand Masters tournament back in August 2025. “So, it will have an impact when one is doing [well], especially when your competitors are doing better. It can affect you. At the same time, it can inspire you, motivate you. You don’t want to be left behind.”
2024 had begun positively for Praggnanandhaa, as he finished fifth on his debut in the Candidates tournament. However, that achievement was dwarfed by Gukesh winning that tournament, and then the World Championship itself. Two years later, mature and more self-aware, Praggnanandhaa’s aim is to give himself a shot at Gukesh’s title later this year.
It won’t be easy, but the Candidates is never supposed to be easy. Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura are two of the best players of this generation. Javokhir Sindarov comes into the tournament in incredible form. The impregnable Wei Yi and Anish Giri are never easy to beat. Both Matthias Blübaum and Andrey Esipenko pulled off giant-killing acts to make it to the Candidates.
And then there’s the issue of Praggnanandhaa’s recent form. After a stellar start to 2025, where he won three massive classical tournaments – the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, and the UzChess Cup in Tashkent – his form took a dip, resulting in disappointing performances at the Grand Swiss and the World Cup. Fortunately for Praggnanandhaa, that stellar first half of the year meant he built an unassailable lead at the top of the FIDE circuit, which has brought him this spot at the Candidates.
2026 didn’t begin too well either, as Praggnanandhaa managed only one win in 13 rounds at the Tata Steel Masters tournament, as the defence of his title went awry and ended with a 10th-place finish. His classical rating has dropped from 2785 in September 2025 to 2741 now, and that’s a direct consequence of these consecutive poor showings.
It’s not new for players at Candidates tournaments to hide some of their best prep in the immediate build-up to the tournament, and while it’s not clear whether Praggnanandhaa was doing so, Indian fans will certainly be hoping that was the case.
He hasn’t played any tournaments since, and that is not a coincidence. Ramesh said back in August that Praggnanandhaa’s poor 2024 was down to playing too much chess. His performances at the back-end of 2025 came on the back of a packed schedule in the first half of the year, across different formats. The emphasis clearly has been on ensuring that he’s fresh and ready for the challenge that he faces in Cyprus, starting on Sunday.
“I would like some rest, but it doesn’t look like I am going to get it,” Praggnanandhaa had told ESPN in July last year, right after winning the UzChess Cup. He didn’t get it, and it eventually showed in results for the rest of the year.
Ramesh had opined that the consequence of playing too much chess was the bad habits that kept creeping into Praggnanandhaa’s game, without time to take a step back and look for solutions to erase those bad habits. In the nearly two months since the end of the Tata Steel tournament, Praggnanandhaa and his team, including Ramesh and GM Vaibhav Suri, would have done exactly that.
Ramesh doesn’t travel with Praggnanandhaa for tournaments anymore – Suri has taken over that role. However, his input and role in their training camps still remains as integral as it has always been for Praggnanandhaa. Both Ramesh and Praggnanandhaa are aligned on their ambitions as well. Other formats may come and go, the ultimate aim is to be World Champion.
In that quest, the hope is that the break now has a similar effect as the break at the end of 2024, which gave Praggnanandhaa the chance to work with his team, identify areas to work on, and implement his team’s feedback.
The experience of 2024 means he knows to deal with the pressures of the tournament. Beating the best players in the world isn’t new to him either. The hope is that the rest and freshness he’s gotten over the last couple of months keep him in the best mental state to play his best chess, because there is little doubt that the best of Praggnanandhaa is good enough to win the Candidates.
If he can do that over the next three weeks, then he can ensure that the World Championship will remain in Chennai. Of course, the ultimate aim for Praggnanandhaa is to take the crown off Gukesh’s head. The biggest step towards that begins this weekend.
