Praggnanandhaa: 'Great achievement', Gautam adani congratulates Praggnanandhaa on becoming the number-one indian and winning UzChess Cup
The 19-year-old overtook world champion D Gukesh (2776.6) and arjun Erigaisi (2775.7), who was India's top-ranked player till thursday but has now slipped to world number six.
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa became India's top-ranked chess player in live ratings after winning the UzChess Cup Masters 2025 in Tashkent on Friday. The win took Praggnanandhaa's live rating to 2778.3, making him jump three places to world number four. He thus achieved the highest ranking of his career.
Adani Group chairman and business tycoon gautam Adani on Saturday praised Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. He posted from his social media account, 'Congratulations Praggnanandhaa! Proud of you! What an achievement to win the UzChess Cup, and become India's number one and world number four! And you are still just 19! India's youth is truly our biggest strength.'
The 19-year-old overtook world champion D Gukesh (2776.6) and arjun Erigaisi (2775.7), who was India's top-ranked player till thursday but has now slipped to world number six. Magnus Carlsen (2839.2) remains on top. Praggnanandhaa began the final day one point behind local contender Nodirbek Abdusattorov and half a point behind Javokhir Sindhurov.
A crucial win over Abdusattorov in the final round helped him draw level with both players on 5.5 points at the end of the round-robin stage. Erigaisi missed a chance to make it a four-player tie by drawing with Arvind Chithambaram. All three players scored two points in the double round-robin blitz in the first round of the tiebreak.
Abdusattorov and Sindarov drew both their games while Praggnanandhaa won both with white pieces but lost with black pieces. In the second tiebreak, Praggnanandhaa drew with Abdusattorov with white pieces and defeated Sindarov with black pieces. Sindarov's win over Abdusattorov sealed the title for the indian player.
This is Praggnanandhaa's third title this year. Earlier, he had won the Tata Steel Chess Tournament and the Grand Chess Tour Superbet Classic in Romania. He was also the runner-up in the Stefan Avagyan Memorial earlier this month. Five-time world champion Viswanathan anand congratulated Praggnanandhaa on social media and wrote, "Congratulations to R Praggnanandhaa for winning the uzbekistan Chess Cup."
He wrote, "This is his third major classical win this year. Of all his victories this year, this one seemed the least likely. He beat arjun Erigaisi and then went on to take first place by beating Abdusattorov in a crucial match today. He is the new world number four chess player and the highest-rated player in India.'
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