June 29, 2025

Praggnanandhaa Wins UzChess Cup Despite Losing “Game Of The Year”

Admin025 mins


GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is Indian number-one and world number-four after a stunning comeback saw him beat GMs Arjun Erigaisi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the final rounds before winning the 2025 UzChess Cup Masters in tiebreaks over GM Javokhir Sindarov and Abdusattorov. That came after GM Richard Rapport had seemingly ended Praggnanandhaa’s hopes with a candidate for game of the year.  

Praggnanandhaa took $20,000 for first place, Sindarov $15,000 for 2nd, and Abdusattorov $10,000 for 3rd. Photo: UzChess Cup.

UzChess Masters Final Standings

Rapport Beats Praggnanandhaa In Candidate For Game Of The Year

When we last reported on the UzChess Cup after round five, Praggnanandhaa had suffered a tough loss to GM Parham Maghsoodloo that left him a point behind Abdusattorov. Before things got better they would get much worse, as in round six he lost a phenomenal game to GM Richard Rapport, who up to that point had lost two games and won none.

Richard Rapport won arguably the game of the year so far. Photo: UzChess Cup.

The Hungarian credited the ambition of his opponent for letting him play the kind of game he wanted, and summed up, “When you go for this King’s Indian style of positions you kind of dream of this kind of games,” while also describing it as “more like from the pre-engine era.”

When you go for this King’s Indian style of positions you kind of dream of this kind of games!

—Rapport on his game against Praggnanandhaa  

The first sign we were in for a treat was the knight sacrifice 15…Nxd5!.

Rapport worked out the key follow-up over-the-board, explaining, “I’m on -2 in the tournament, and I felt like at this point there’s not much to lose, so I felt like going for it!”

He suspected his opponent might have been prepared for the sacrifice since he played so fast, and Praggnanandhaa gave confirmation a couple of days later, noting, “This is one of the top computer lines, it’s not something hidden.” Praggnanandhaa’s biggest regret of the game was not going for his original intention of 23.Nd4, when Black is better but a fight lies ahead, but 23.Bc4?, which ran into the beautiful refutation 23…Bc2!!. A chess legend took notice! 

Rapport gave no chances in what followed, so that it was a perfect game for the Hungarian star. GM Anish Giri joined in the praise.

The game has been analyzed below by GM Rafael Leitao, who writes:

This isn’t just the best game of the year so far—it’s one of the best games in recent memory. Given the opening play and the level of opposition, it immediately enters the pantheon of classical masterpieces, the ones that will be analyzed and savored for generations to come.

The good news for Praggnanandhaa in round six, however, was that the leader also suffered a shock defeat.

Abdusattorov Hits Back From 132-Move Defeat

Nepomniachtchi observes the battle of the Nodirbeks. Photo: UzChess Cup.

It must be tough to be the chess world’s second most famous Nodirbek, but GM Nodirbek Yakubboev has been a nemesis for his great namesake in recent years, defeating Abdusattorov in tiebreaks to win the 2023 Qatar Masters and also the previous 2024 UzChess Masters. In round six he did it again, pulling off an epic win just when Abdusattorov seemed to have escaped the desperate position he’d got out of the opening.

The last pawn left the board on move 86, leaving Abdusattorov needing to defend the theoretically drawn but tricky Rook vs. Rook + Bishop endgame until move 136 to be able to claim a draw by the 50-move rule. The tournament leader did everything right until blundering just seven moves short with 129…Rc2? in a position where 129.Ra3 or 129.Rg2 were the ways to hold.

That bitter defeat could easily have derailed Abdusattorov’s tournament, but he struck back with a fine win over GM Parham Maghsoodloo in the very next round and would still go into the final round of the event as the sole leader.

Praggnanandhaa Beats Arjun, Abdusattorov To Force Tiebreaks

The greatest comeback of the event, however, would be that of Praggnanandhaa. After two losses in a row (“I just cracked!”), he was facing his three biggest rivals in the final three classical games—and he scored 2.5/3! He explained that strangely the losses helped: “I think that sort of freed me up, because I just stopped doing prep as much as I was doing, I started resting more.”

First he applied pressure in a 57-move draw against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, and then he took down world number-three GM Arjun Erigaisi in the penultimate round. “Somehow things went so smooth for me, which shouldn’t happen—maybe he wanted to try and push,” said Praggnanandhaa, of a game where he built up a huge advantage and got to crash through in the end with 24.Rxe6!.

Praggnanandhaa identified his colleague’s 13…d5? as already a big mistake.

That win meant that Praggnanandhaa went into the final round a point behind the leader, but with his fate largely in his own hands, since he was facing that leader. “I was just hoping for a fight,” said the 19-year-old of playing Black against Abdusattorov, though he felt his chances were boosted by the fact Sindarov was only half a point off the lead, meaning Abdusattorov couldn’t be sure a draw would be enough for clear first place.

The first of four games Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa would play on the final day. Photo: UzChess Cup.

In the end Sindarov would make what proved a well-judged quick draw against Maghsoodloo, but by that stage Abdusattorov had already played himself into trouble. It was remarkable how easily Praggnanandhaa took over and won on demand, with move 18 the moment at which he felt the game turned.

That meant a three-way tie for first place, which could easily have been a four-way tie except that Arjun let a promising position fizzle out against GM Aravindh Chithambaram. Tiebreaks would follow! 

Nepomniachtchi Drops Out Of Top 10, Aravindh Out Of Top 20

The tournament in Uzbekistan had a big impact on the live rating list that changed round-by-round. Praggnanandhaa climbed to fifth, dropped to seventh, then ultimately finished above World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju in fourth place, making him the Indian number-one.

The UzChess Cup shook up the live ratings. Image: 2700chess.

It wasn’t only at the very top of the standings that things were shaken up. Less than three weeks ago Aravindh had finished ahead of Praggnanandhaa to win in Armenia and climb to world number-nine, but he’s plummeted since, with four losses and no wins in Uzbekistan. After a painful loss to Sindarov in round seven he just sat at the board for a minute afterward.

After a final-round escape he ended the tournament in the world number-25 spot.

It’s not only Aravindh who suffered, however, since two-time world championship challenger Nepomniachtchi started the event with a loss to Sindarov, seemed largely uninterested in the seven draws that followed, and then lost to GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov in the final round. It’s likely Nepomniachtchi decided he had to try and beat the bottom seed and at least end on 50 percent, but his 15…d5? was a losing move, as Vokhidov went on to prove with close to flawless chess. 

Vokhidov won his final two games in Tashkent. Photo: UzChess Cup.

That loss saw Nepomniachtchi drop out of the world top-10 to number 14, and marks a historic moment—for the first time since rating lists have existed no Russian player is in the top-10.

Two footnotes that could be added are that Giri, who celebrates his 30th birthday on Saturday, was born in Russia, and that GM Sergey Karjakin, at 2750, would be world number-nine if he wasn’t inactive—he’s played only two classical games since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine over three years ago.  

Praggnanandhaa Does It Again In Tiebreaks! 

Praggnanandhaa topped the table after the classical games since he’d won the individual encounters against both Sindarov and Abdusattorov, but a tie for first place was set to be decided by a playoff. Praggnanandhaa had no complaints, commenting, “A couple of days back I was not even thinking about it—I was just happy to make it, I didn’t really care about the format!”

The Indian star had nothing to fear, since he’d already won title in tiebreaks in Wijk aan Zee and Bucharest in 2025.

The format wasn’t defined in the regulations for a three-way tie, with the organizers deciding to play a 3+2 blitz double round-robin. Praggnanandhaa got straight down to business with another win over Abdusattorov that he described as “clean,” with the Indian star relentless from 17.Ra5! onward. The game ended just before checkmate.

That the tiebreaks wouldn’t be easy became clear when Abdusattorov hit back to beat Praggnanandhaa in the same Rook + Bishop vs. Rook endgame he’d lost earlier in the event, but that would be the only game in six that Abdusattorov won on the final day.

Abdusattorov had led from day one… until tiebreaks on the final day. Photo: UzChess Cup.

The real challenge came from Sindarov, who beat Praggnanandhaa in their first game and was only a draw away from overall victory in the tournament in their next. Praggnanandhaa confessed, “I was really playing horribly” and admitted he’d all but given up in the endgame before he got to play 32.Rf7! and “couldn’t see a direct way” for his opponent to play. The draw should still have been achievable, but Sindarov panicked, the white d-pawn broke free, and Praggnanandhaa had won another game on demand to prolong the event.

That meant the double round-robin had ended with all players on two points! 

Tiebreaks Double Round-Robin

The organizers then decided to play another round-robin, which this time produced a winner! 

Tiebreaks Single Round-Robin

The last Praggnanandhaa-Abdusattorov clash was critical, since Praggnanandhaa stumbled into a lost position but kept fighting until a 74-move draw with only bare kings left at the end. The last big miss had been Abdusattorov not playing 38…f4+!, when the only way to save the bishop is to play 39.exf4, but then the black e-pawn runs.

After that escape, Praggnanandhaa confidently beat Sindarov, who missed two chances to play Re5, but didn’t get a third. 

There was one game to go, however, Abdusattorov vs. Sindarov, where if Abdusattorov won he would tie Praggnanandhaa on 1.5/2, and we would have got a single armageddon game to decide the title.

Abdusattorov got an edge in the middlegame, but it just wasn’t his day, as Sindarov exploited inaccuracies to establish a crushing bind on the position. He went on to win and take second place and an extra $5,000. Praggnanandhaa, meanwhile, was the champion!

It had been a long day, with Praggnanandhaa commenting, “Right now I’m just completely exhausted, I just want to go to bed badly, but overall, yeah, I’m happy with how it went today!”

Among those to congratulate Praggnanandhaa was his long-term coach GM Ramesh R B, who wrote:

Praggnanandhaa also credited Ramesh with helping him change his approach in 2025, saying, “I’m much more confident and ambitious when I play, so that’s something that we worked on and that’s showing on the board.”

I’m much more confident and ambitious when I play.

—Praggnanandhaa on what’s changed in 2025  

Praggnanandhaa’s string of tournament victories and ties for first place has seen him build up a huge lead in the FIDE Circuit that will qualify one player for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. He missed out on a potential 26.63 points for sole first place in Tashkent, but he still scored 22.19, compared to Abdusattorov’s 18.56, leaving him 55 points clear at the top.

Praggnanandhaa is a big favorite to grab a Candidates spot via the FIDE Circuit, though if he qualifies by another path the race will be wide open again. Image: FIDE.

The 105.78 score is slightly misleading as only five events with less than 50 players can be counted, but Praggnanandhaa is likely to play the FIDE Grand Swiss and FIDE World Cup later this year, both of which can also qualify him for the Candidates.

The Challengers finished with Greek GM Nikolas Theodorou first, 18-year-old Mukhiddin Madaminov second, and Vitaly Sivuk 3rd on the tiebreak of having won the head-to-head encounter with Vasyl Ivanchuk, who took fourth. Photo: UzChess Cup.

Up next for Praggnanandhaa is the SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz. The action begins on Wednesday, July 2, but Praggnanandhaa revealed he already has a 3 a.m. flight to begin the journey there on Saturday. The field for that Grand Chess Tour event means we’ll get to see another three games between World Champion Gukesh and world number-one Magnus Carlsen.   




 Don’t miss it! 

The UzChess Masters is the main event of the 2025 UzChess Cup, taking place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on June 19-27. The 10 players compete in a single round-robin for a $20,000 top prize. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves then 30 minutes to the end of the game, with a 30-second increment from move one.

Previous coverage:

Abdusattorov Leads Arjun, Maghsoodloo After UzChess Masters Round 5





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related News