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3 min readApr 20, 2026 10:02 PM IST
R Praggnanandhaa and Javokhir Sindarov in action in Round 3 of the Candidates. (FIDE/Yoav Nis)
Two-time World Chess Championship contender Ian Nepomniachtchi has said that India’s R Praggnanandhaa, who ended seventh in the recent Candidates tournament, became a completely different chess player after losing his game to eventual tournament winner Javokhir Sindarov.
“Despite the fact that he won a very good game against Anish Giri in the first round, the tournament didn’t go well for him. Why? Because he lost to Sindarov. After that, it was as if he became a completely different chess player. He seemed to be trying to put up a fight with both white and black. He changed openings like gloves, playing extremely risky schemes, but in the second half of the tournament, his luck ran out,” Nepomniachtchi said on his YouTube channel.
Nepo continued: “Pragg failed to win two completely winning positions—I believe against Wei Yi and Bluebaum; each was around +4 or more. Against Bluebaum, I think he was delivering something close to a forced mate at one point. I’m exaggerating a bit, but still. On the other hand, he could have lost even more than he did. For instance, he could have lost to Caruana in the penultimate round, if I’m not mistaken. He had several other quite dangerous positions, and as it stands, he lost three games and finished at minus two.
“Of course, this is an extremely unsuccessful result for him because, based on last season, many saw him as one of the favorites alongside Fabiano Caruana. It’s very difficult to say what happened to him, but at some point, something went wrong ‘in the conservatory’ (the foundation of his play). The end of last year, the beginning of this one, and the Candidates tournament included—he is playing significantly worse than he did last year.
“Perhaps it was simply a super-successful seasonal surge where everything worked out, whereas this year, everything is falling through his fingers. It’s hard to judge, but I certainly don’t think this will be his last Candidates tournament. On the contrary, he has played two of them now; neither was brilliant, but he is gaining experience. He is still extraordinarily young—just barely over 20. It’s clear he will be in the world chess elite for a long time. I believe he has dropped out of the top ten after this tournament, but again, in my view, rating is a very temporary thing.”
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