Chess Star R Praggnanandhaa Surpasses World Champion D Gukesh To Become Top-Ranked Indian

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa has ascended to the pinnacle of Indian chess rankings following his triumph at the UzChess Cup Masters 2025 in Tashkent. This victory elevated his live rating to 2778.3, positioning him as World No.4, a career-best ranking. The 19-year-old surpassed D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi, who were previously India's top players.

Praggnanandhaa began the final day trailing local favourite Nodirbek Abdusattorov by one point and was half a point behind Javokhir Sindarov. A decisive win against Abdusattorov in the last round allowed him to tie with both players at 5.5 points after the round-robin stage. Arjun Erigaisi missed an opportunity for a four-way tie after drawing with Aravindh Chithambaram.

Intense Tiebreaks Decide Winner

The first tiebreak involved a double round-robin blitz where all three contenders ended with two points each. While Abdusattorov and Sindarov drew their games, Praggnanandhaa won against both with white pieces but lost with black. In the second tiebreak, he drew with Abdusattorov using white and defeated Sindarov with black, securing the title when Sindarov beat Abdusattorov.

This marks Praggnanandhaa's third title this year, following victories at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament and Grand Chess Tour Superbet Classic in Romania. He also finished as runner-up at the Stepan Avagyan Memorial earlier this month.

Recognition from Chess Legend

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand lauded Praggnanandhaa on social media: "Congrats to @rpraggnachess for winning the Uzbekistan Chess Cup." He noted it was Praggnanandhaa's third major classical win this year and highlighted his impressive performance in crucial matches against Arjun Erigaisi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

Anand further praised Praggnanandhaa's resilience: "In an impressive demonstration of character he won his third tiebreak of the year as well. He is deservedly the new number four in the chess world and the highest rated player in India," he concluded.

Magnus Carlsen remains at World No.1 with a rating of 2839.2, followed by Hikaru Nakamura at 2807.0 and Fabiano Caruana at 2784.2. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi has now slipped to World No.6 after being India's top-ranked player until recently.