In a major change in the standings, R Praggnanandhaa has overtaken reigning world champion D Gukesh in the live FIDE rankings. On Saturday, Praggnanandhaa’s live rating stood at 2777.2 and Gukesh’s is at 2776.6. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi, who had already overtaken Gukesh recently, is fourth with a rating of 2780.7.
The huge change in the rankings also makes Praggnanandhaa the new India No. 2, and Gukesh is third in the national rankings. Praggnanandhaa is currently in action in the UzChess Cup Masters in Tashkent, hosted by the Uzbekistan Chess Federation.
Praggnanandhaa drew in the first round and then got his first win in Round 2, beating Uzbek Shamsiddin Vokhidov with the white pieces. He leads the tournament leaderboard with 1.5 points, tied with Erigaisi and others.
Praggnanandhaa also beat Gukesh at the TATA Masters in Wijk aan Zee, on January. He came out on top, beating Gukesh in the deciding tie-breaker round. After winning the title, he said, “It (the title) was very important for my confidence. Quite a few World champions have played in the tournament. I feel proud to have won such a prestigious and historical championships. In the second half of 2024, I was not happy with the quality of my games. I trained a lot with my coach R. B. Ramesh for this. I am not thinking of the FIDE Candidates as it is far away. 2025 looks exciting.”
On beating Gukesh, he added, “It was full of tension. We lost to strong players [Pragg lost to Vincent Keymer while Gukesh lost to Arjun Erigaisi in the 13th and final round]. The tiebreaker was exciting. It was tiring as well I had played six-and-a-half hours of classical game and with 30 minutes of rest had to play the blitz playoffs. These were risky games as each had 10 seconds to make a move. I couldn’t think of anything.”