In what will be an attempt to secure his spot in the 2026 Candidates tournament via the FIDE Circuit Rating of 2025, Indian Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa will compete in the Open event at the London Chess Classic (LCC) 2025. The tournament will be held in the UK capital from November 27 – December 3 this year.
Following the high of the 2024 Candidates Tournament, which featured a record three Indians — D. Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi, and Praggnanandhaa — the 2026 edition will have at most one Indian representative.
The ongoing home World Cup in Goa, which offered three Candidates’ spots, proved disappointing for the Indian contingent. The tournament began with 24 Indian participants but none reached the semifinals. While Arjun Erigaisi and Pentala Harikrishna made deep runs and kept fans hopeful, they ultimately could not withstand the pressure of the knockout format, resulting in no Indian player securing a spot in the eight-player challengers event.
For Praggnananadhaa, the FIDE World Cup 2025 was a rather disappointing affair, with the last edition’s finalist crashing out in the fourth round. He was knocked out after losing to Russia’s Daniil Dubov in the tiebreaks. While the 20-year-old did not appear convincing in his wins, he also looked shaky right from the start. Having received a bye in the opening round, Praggnanandhaa was dragged to the eighth game in the tiebreaks of Round 2 by Australian-Uzbek player Kuybokarov. Pragg then defeated Armenia’s Robert Hovhannisyan in the third round before facing Dubov.
The LCC Open is a 120-player, nine-round Swiss tournament with an average rating of 2581 Elo. The broader LCC Festival includes eight events across all levels, with the premier event being an elite all-play-all event, a closed invitational round-robin.
That event will feature the likes of Alireza Firouzja, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Sam Shankland, Michael Adams, and Abhimanyu Mishra. Among the Indian Grandmasters, P. Iniyan and Pranav Anand will also compete alongside Praggnanandhaa.
Praggnanandhaa currently leads the 2025 Circuit leaderboard with 107 points from seven eligible events. He is followed by Anish Giri (81.18), Fabiano Caruana (65.55), and Matthias Bluebaum (63.94). However, since all three have already qualified for the Candidates through other paths, Praggnanandhaa’s closest rival — Germany’s Vincent Keymar, with 55.83 points — remains too far behind to pose a serious threat.
Story continues below this ad
A podium finish in London would all but guarantee Praggnanandhaa a place in the 2026 Candidates, scheduled to take place in Cyprus from March 28 – April 16.
What is the FIDE Circuit Rating Leaderboard?
The FIDE Circuit is one of the qualification paths for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. The player who achieves the highest cumulative results over the year in eligible tournaments earns a spot in the Candidates.
A player’s final score is calculated as the sum of their seven best event results, or all their results if they have participated in fewer than seven events.
American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana qualified for the Candidates 2026 through the 2024 FIDE Circuit leaderboard.
Story continues below this ad
Confirmed entrants in the London Chess Classic 2025 Open Event:
Grandmasters:
Pranav Anand, Stuart Conquest, Matthieu Cornette, Daniel Fernandez, Glenn Flear, Tamas Fodor, Eldar Gasanov, David Gavrilescu, Ameet Ghasi, Stephen Gordon, Alon Greenfeld, Mark Hebden, P. Iniyan, Velimir Ivic, Rinat Jumabayev, Alexander Kovchan, Martin Kraemer, Sebastian Maze, Georg Meier, Victor Mikhalevski, R. Praggnanandhaa, Shreyas Royal, Vahap Sanal, Ilya Smirin, Matthew Wadsworth, Peter Wells, Daniil Yuffa
International Masters:
Miragha Aghayev, Benny Ayzenberg, Aaravamudhan Balaji, Svyatoslav Bazakutsa, Nicholas Brunner, Nico Chasin, Maciej Czopor, Marsel Efroimski, Alex Golding, Harry Grieve, Marcus Harvey, Jovanka Houska, Nikola Kanov, Tarun Kanyamarala, Akshat Khamparia, Filip Magold, Peter Roberson, Eytan Rozen, Shete Sammed Jaykumar, Niklas Schmider, Sven Tica, Loic Travadon, Thibault Vandenbussche, Hao Wang (ZJ), Jonah Willow
