He chuckles that might have been a bit much had it not been for the results: he won two of the three tournaments. Bengaluru: Praggnanandhaa returned to his hotel room and splayed himself across his bed the night of his Grand Chess Tour win. He had spent a month living at the same hotel, in the same city – St Louis, Missouri.
He won the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz last month and became the first Indian to win the Grand Chess Tour, just months after his stunning Norway Chess triumph, where he defeated world No. He is candid, pensive and characteristically droll as he talks about his recent run, growing up in the public eye and evolving as a player. “I’m not someone who was naturally ambitious. It’s going swimmingly well. “My focus was getting to the Candidates through the FIDE circuit spot. I played so many classical tournaments back-to-back. There was no one else even trying to attempt it. Everything felt like it was going well and then it didn’t go my way. I don’t want to think about the next cycle already. It’s too much. Apart from his trainer Vaibhav Suri, he leans on his mentor RB Ramesh. At home, his go-to person is his sister, Vaishali, who will compete at the Women’s World Championship next year. After his Rapid and Blitz win in Saint Louis, the siblings found time for the latest Spider-Man movie.
The 21-year-old is back home in Chennai, playing pickleball and catching his breath before he heads to Uzbekistan for the Olympiad in mid-September. That changed towards the end of 2024. In January 2025, he won his first major tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, defeating then newly-crowned world champion Gukesh in the playoff. 1 Magnus Carlsen twice. At world no 8, he’s now India’s highest-ranked player, returning to the world top 10 after seven months.
Because for two years you think about this one thing and suddenly it’s over and I wasn’t even close to getting a chance, it still hurts.
I didn’t have a strong will to win,” Pragg told HT in an interview. “He’s my go-to guy,” Pragg laughs.
A part of him wishes he had this run of form at the Candidates tournament earlier this year. I prepared well, I was in good shape before the Candidates and also started with a win.
