Four tiebreaks, three titles: Story of Praggnanandhaa's barnstorming 2025

Indian Express

19 hours ago

India's R Praggnanandhaa fought his way out of tense tiebreaks with two home favourites, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov, to claim the title at the 2nd UzChess Cup tournament in Tashkent on Friday.
Remarkably, this is the fourth time in 2025 that Praggnanandhaa has had to duke it out in the tiebreaks at a classical event. He has an incredible conversation rate this year, winning three titles and ending second in the fourth event.
As five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand wrote on X: 'Of all his wins this year, this one seemed the least likely with just two rounds to go. However, he defeated Arjun Erigaisi (yesterday) and today in the crucial match defeated Nodirbek Abdussattorov 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.'
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@fide_chess(1/3)
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) June 27, 2025
Tata Steel Chess event: In February, Praggnanandhaa won the first super-elite event of the year at the idyllic Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee after beating Gukesh, who was fresh from being crowned the youngest world champion in history, in a tense tiebreak. It was a cut-throat field of 14 players that included the likes of Fabiano Caruana, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Anish Giri, Pentala Harikrishna, Vincent Keymer, Arjun Erigaisi and Leon Luke Mendonca among others.
Superbet Chess Classic Romania: Praggnanandhaa won his second title of 2025 in May at Romania. The Superbet Chess Classic Romania, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour, saw the Indian teenager emerge victorious after another dramatic playoffs for the title, this time against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja. The 10-player field at Bucharest had players like Gukesh, Fabiano Caruana, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, and Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial tournament: June witnessed a rare second-place finish for Praggnanandhaa at a tournament in 2025, where he ended behind good friend Aravindh Chithambaram. Once again, as has been the theme with Pragg this year, he found himself in a tiebreak after the round robin event ended. Both Pragg and Aravindh, who have trained together under RB Ramesh since childhood, finished with 6.5 points at the event in Jermuk, Armenia. This was a tiebreak that Pragg lost.
2nd UzChess Cup: Competing against another elite field, Praggnanandhaa won his final two games on demand to force his was into a three-way tiebreak along side Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov. There, after six games of three minutes each, Pragg won the title.