Praggnanandhaa Becomes World No. 4 Chess Player After UzChess Cup Victory

On June 27, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa clinched the UzChess Cup Masters 2025 title, making him the top-ranked Indian chess player in live ratings and pushing him to World No. 4 with a rating of 2778.3. This marks the highest ranking of his career so far.

The 19-year-old surpassed World Champion D Gukesh (2776.6) and Arjun Erigaisi (2775.7), who had held the top spot among Indian players until Thursday. Both now sit at World No. 6. Magnus Carlsen (2839.2) remains at the top of the global list.

Praggnanandhaa started the final day trailing local hopeful Nodirbek Abdusattorov by one point and Javokhir Sindarov by half a point. A crucial win over Abdusattorov in the final round helped him finish the round-robin stage tied at 5.5 points with both players. Erigaisi missed the chance to create a four-way tie after drawing with Aravindh Chithambaram.

In the first tiebreak, all three players scored two points in the double round-robin blitz. While Abdusattorov and Sindarov drew both games, Praggnanandhaa defeated both with white pieces but lost to them with black pieces.

In the second tiebreak, he drew with Abdusattorov (with white pieces) and beat Sindarov (with black). Sindarov’s win over Abdusattorov ultimately secured the title for the Indian prodigy.

This marks Praggnanandhaa’s third title of the year. Earlier, he won the Tata Steel Chess Tournament and the Superbet Classic of the Grand Chess Tour in Romania. He was also the runner-up at the Stephan Avagyan Memorial earlier this month.

He shared, “This is my third major classical title of the year. This one seemed the least likely at the start. I beat Arjun Erigaisi and today I beat Abdusattorov in a crucial game to clinch the top spot. I’m now World No. 4 and the highest-rated Indian chess player.”