New Delhi: Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa became India’s top-ranked chess player in the live ratings after winning the UzChess Cup Masters 2025, here on Friday. The win took Praggnanandhaa’s live rating to 2778.3, making him World No.4 — up three places — as he achieved his highest career ranking.
The 19-year-old leapfrogged world champion D Gukesh (2776.6) and Arjun Erigaisi (2775.7), who was India’s top-ranked player until Thursday but has now slipped to world No.6. Magnus Carlsen (2839.2) remains No.1, followed by Hikaru Nakamura (2807.0) and Fabiano Caruana (2784.2).
Praggnanandhaa started the final day a point behind local favourite Nodirbek Abdusattorov and half a point behind Javokhir Sindarov. A crucial win over Abdusattorov in the final round helped him join both players at 5.5 points at the end of the round-robin stage.
Erigaisi missed a chance to make it a four-way tie after drawing with Aravindh Chithambaram. In the first round of tiebreaks, a double round-robin blitz, all three players finished with two points. Abdusattorov and Sindarov drew both their games, while Praggnanandhaa beat both with white but lost with black.
In the second tiebreak, Praggnanandhaa drew with Abdusattorov with white and beat Sindarov with black. Sindarov’s win over Abdusattorov sealed the title for the Indian. This was Praggnanandhaa’s third title of the year, after wins at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament and the Grand Chess Tour Superbet Classic in Romania.
He was also runner-up at the Stepan Avagyan Memorial earlier this month. Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand congratulated Praggnanandhaa on social media, posting: “Congrats to @rpraggnachess for winning the Uzbekistan Chess Cup.”
“Third major classical victory this year. Of all his wins this year, this one seemed the least likely with just two rounds to go.” He continued: “However, he defeated Arjun Erigaisi and today in the crucial match defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov to tie for first place.
“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.
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