R Praggnanandhaa has had a tough run in recent months, having gone through a decline in the second half of 2025 and finishing a lowly 11th at the recent Tata Steel Chess tournament after entering as the defending champion.<\/p>\n
R Praggnanandhaa isn\u2019t exactly a favourite heading into the 2026 Candidates Tournament. Not only is the Indian Grandmaster up against the likes of Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana \u2013 two of the world\u2019s top-three players \u2013 he also happens to be woefully out of form at the moment.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old had a fantastic start last year by winning the Tata Steel Chess Tournament followed by victories at Superbet Chess Classic Romania as well as the UzChess Cup.\u00a0Praggnanandhaa\u2019s form, however, took a hit in the second half of the year as the former Indian No 1 struggled at the FIDE Grand Swiss and World Cup as well as in the Grand Chess Tour Finals and the World Rapid and Blitz Championships.<\/p>\n
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Also Read | More recently, his title defence at the Tata Steel Chess ended with \u2018Pragg\u2019 finishing 11th out of 14 competitors.<\/p>\n \u2018To be in good form is crucial\u2019<\/p>\n His poor run in recent months does not necessarily mean Praggnanandhaa cannot win the Candidates, the \u201cOf course, one has to reach peak form. I remember before that Candidates, a few days before, my head felt so clear. Some openings I analysed immediately showed the most interesting directions,\u201d Gelfand told FIDE.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be in good form is crucial. The one who reaches the best form has a clear advantage. But it is also important to stay cool throughout the tournament. It is unlikely someone will win convincingly all the way; there will be ups and downs,\u201d added the 57-year-old.<\/p>\n The Belarusian-born GM added that while form was crucial, luck also played a role in what arguably is the most important tournament in chess after the World Championship.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, luck is hugely important in every tournament, and this one even more. Luck can be not only when your opponent blunders, but also in pairings. You might face a player who has just lost one or two games, and that can give you a better chance,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Gelfand had defeated Alexander Grischuk in the final of the 2011 Candidates in Kazan, Russia, earning the right to challenge Viswanathan Anand in the 2012 FIDE World Championship.<\/p>\n STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD<\/p>\n And while he fought hard in the title match, with the scoreline reading 6-6 at the end of the 12 Classical games, Gelfand went down fighting against the Indian chess icon in the rapid tie-breaks.<\/p>\n Home<\/a>Sports<\/a>Chess<\/a>Amid Praggnanandhaa’s poor run, former Candidates winner says good form crucial for victory: ‘Has a clear advantage’End of Article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"R Praggnanandhaa has had a tough run in recent months, having gone through a decline in the second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171044,171045,171047,171046,171049,171048,109,3319,171051,171050,85,46,171043,171040,171041,171038,171039,171042,105],"class_list":["post-351722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-boris-gelfand","tag-boris-gelfand-candidates","tag-boris-gelfand-candidates-2011","tag-boris-gelfand-candidates-2026","tag-candidates-2026","tag-candidates-chess","tag-chess","tag-chess-news","tag-fide-candidates-2026","tag-fide-candidates-tournament-2026","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-praggnanandhaa","tag-praggnanandhaa-candidates","tag-praggnanandhaa-candidates-2026","tag-r-praggnanandhaa","tag-r-praggnanandhaa-candidates","tag-r-praggnanandhaa-candidates-2026","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPraggnanandhaa placed in third tier of Candidates 2026 competitors by French GM Vachier-Lagrave<\/a><\/p>\n
\nevent that takes place in Cyprus from 28 March to 16 April<\/a> in which he is the lone Indian in action. However, according to Israeli GM and 2011 Candidates winner Boris Gelfand, form does play a major role at the prestigious tournament, which decides the player that gets to challenge the reigning Classical world champion for the title.<\/p>\n