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The celebrations from his recent UzChess Cup 2025 victory hasn't ended yet and the chess prodigy, GM R Praggnanandhaa has landed another celebratory feat. By winning his third title of the 2025 season after the Tata Steel Chess tournament in February and the Superbet Chess Classic in Romania in May, the 19-year-old chess wizard is on the hottest streak of his career. The latest International Chess Federation (FIDE) ranking is another feather in his cap as he moved to World No. 4.
The Indian chess master leapfrogged to the rank by gaining 12 points from his UzChess Cup victory in Tashkent. After losing two games in a row - including a fabulous one against GM Richard Rapport, he bounced back by gaining 2.5 points in his final three rounds and clinched the title in tie-break.
I don’t think it really matters: R Praggnanandhaa on latest rankings
On his way to winning the UzChess Cup, Praggnanandhaa defeated home favourite Nodirbek Abdusattorov with black pieces on the final day of the tournament, resulting his live rating reaching to 2779, the highest in the country. Pushing him ahead of GM Arjun Erigaisi and reigning world champion D Gukesh, who are at 2776 points each. Before Pragnnanandhaa’s feat, Arjun Erigaisi was the top ranked Indian but his draw against his fellow Indian Aravindh Chithambaram caused him a drop in the rankings - giving India an impressive three players in the world’s top 10.
In his interview with the Times of India, R. Praggnanandhaa said, “I became India’s number one because of one point. So I don’t think it really matters. These one or two points can go either way in one game. I don’t think I’ll pay attention to that so much. For me the tournament that I just won was much more special. I mean, like for me, I take a tournament at a time. I don’t pay too much attention to the likes of these one or two rating points that change.
Carlsen continues to to reign supreme as World no. 1
While Indian fans celebrate Praggnanadhaa’s rise, it was Magnus Carlsen (2839 points), who retained the number one spot in the rankings. It was due to his solid game at the Norway Chess 2025, which was the Norwegian legend’s first individual classical event since last year’s edition of the same tournament. Fellow elite player Hikaru Nakamura continues at number two spot.
Among the other major ratings, Fabiano Caruana climbed to World No. 3 with a seven point gain, while Dutch player Anish Giri re-entered the top 10 after over a year. In a rare feat, for the first time in the history of the game, no Russian player got featured in the global top 10 list, as Ian Nepomniachtchi slipped to 14th position. On the women’s side, GM Anna Muzychuk reclaimed the world number-four spot after six years, while Carissa Yip surged to rank 21. Chinese Grandmaster Hou Yifan remained the top rated female player.
