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RB Ramesh explains what led to R Praggnanandhaa's barnstorming 2025: Playing ‘risky' chess, more variety of openings and second coming out of shadows
There will be a new India No. 1 in town when the official chess ratings list comes out in a few days after R Praggnanandhaa snatched victory at the uber-competitive 2nd UzChess Cup in Tashkent. The win came after some drama where the Indian found himself in a Mexican standoff with two Uzbek players from the country's golden generation.
Pragg won the title against an elite 10-player Masters field in Tashkent that comprised heavy-hitters like Ian Nepomniachtchi, Arjun Erigaisi, Richard Rapport, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Aravindh Chithambaram besides the Uzbek quartet of Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Shamsiddin Vokhidov. After nine rounds of classical chess, there were three players locked at the top with 5.5 points each: Pragg, Abdusattorov and Sindarov.
Pragg had started the event brightly, but had a mid-event stumble with back-to-back defeats against Maghsoodloo and Rapport (which is a candidate for one of the games of the year). Pragg started Friday needing a victory with black pieces. He did exactly that: delivering a 49-move takedown of Abdusattorov in the classical format to ensure a three-way battle for the title via the faster tiebreaks. In the tiebreaks, each of the three players needed to play six games (three against each opponent) with three minutes on the clock. It was after that mayhem that Praggnanandhaa emerged as the winner.
Wrapped up the #UzChessCup Masters with a win in the final round and wins in tie breaks. Tiebreaks were crazy indeed.
Grateful for all the support that I have received so far. Onto my next challenge to Croatia.
— Praggnanandhaa (@rpraggnachess) June 27, 2025
'Tiebreaks were crazy indeed,' posted Pragg on his X, before adding: 'Onto my next challenge in Croatia.'
The UzChess Cup also helped Pragg leap ahead of his compatriots like Arjun, Gukesh and Aravindh in one of the most heavily-contested battles in the sport at the moment: the race to be India's top-ranked player, a position which comes with other perks, like invitations to elite tournaments like Norway Chess. By beating Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa now has a live rating of 2778.3, which also propels him to World No. 4. He leaves behind Gukesh (live rating of 2776.6) and Arjun (2775.7).
The UzChess Cup marks Praggnanandhaa's third title of the year. He won the extremely-competitive Tata Steel event in Wijk aan Zee (where he overpowered newly-crowned world champion Gukesh in a tense tiebreak) and the Grand Chess Tour's Superbet Chess Classic Romania (where he won a playoff against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja). The year has also seen Pragg finish 2nd at the Stepan Avagyan Memorial tournament behind Aravindh.
'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,' wrote five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand on X. '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.'
2025 has seen a different Praggnanandhaa after a quiet 2024 by his standards. The 19-year-old has been coaxed to play a brand of 'risky, more attacking and adventurous chess' by his longtime guru, RB Ramesh. Ramesh pointed at Friday's game against Abdusattorov and said that the approach from Pragg throughout the game was testament to this new mindset while playing chess, which he has adopted this year.
'Pragg is quite good in attack, but he was playing too solid in 2024. At least that was my impression. We discussed this and talked about being more adventurous, which you can see now,' Ramesh told The Indian Express. 'His chess was always quite good. Now he's also been adding new openings and trying a lot more variety of openings in games.'
What has also worked for him is his second, Vaibhav Suri, who also aided the Indian team at the Chess Olympiad, emerging from behind the curtain and travelling full-time with Pragg to tournaments, starting from the event in Wijk aan Zee earlier this year.
'Vaibhav has been helping us longer than this year. But we did not want to go public earlier (and reveal his association with Pragg). He has been with us for some time, but only recently he has started accompanying Pragg for tournaments and that has been very helpful,' Ramesh said. 'It's good to have someone you know well, who believes in you, travel with you during important tournaments. When you are going through difficult times, it will be easier to believe in ourselves.'
Congratulations @rpraggnachess for winning the UZchess cup 2025 after a tremendous comeback towards the end showing strong character. Amazing job by @vaibhavschess instrumental in Pragg winning many titles this year! And the other unknown gentleman who has been contributing from…
— Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) June 27, 2025
On X, while congratulating Pragg, Ramesh also indicated there was another second operating from the shadows in Pragg's team.
'Amazing job by Vaibhav, (who has been) instrumental in Pragg winning many titles this year! And the other unknown gentleman who has been contributing from behind the scenes,' Ramesh wrote on X.
Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
