Magnus Carlsen ranks Praggnanandhaa as 3rd favourite to win Candidates tournament
Former world champion Magnus Carlsen believes that R Praggnanandhaa, who is India’s only contender at the prestigious Candidates tournament in March next year, will be the third best-placed man to secure the chance to challenge the current world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, in the upcoming world championship. Carlsen believes that the two American stars, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura will be the best bets to win the Candidates.
Carlsen had a gloomy forecast for the remaining five Candidates contenders.
“Just like last time, probably the Americans are the favorites. Then we got Pragg as the third favorite, and then probably a pretty big drop off after that. Wei Yi is really good, but I don’t think he’s capable of winning enough games to win the Candidates. So it will be interesting to see. I would have loved to see some more big names in the field, but then again, if you didn’t qualify, you didn’t qualify,” Carlsen told Chess.com in an interview after the
Freestyle Tour ended in South Africa.
WATCH: Magnus Carlsen speaks on 8 Candidates’ chances
Carlsen then stated that there must be a provision in the Candidates tournament to get on board players like Arjun Erigaisi and Vincent Keymer.
“Maybe this system should kind of account for somebody like Vincent Keymer, who was really close to qualifying a lot of times and has the highest rating of anybody who’s not there. He certainly deserved to be there, but I guess he and Arjun and a few others will have to await their returns. It’s always interesting to follow,” Carlsen added.
File images of Magnus Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa during the Tata Steel India Rapid and Blitz tournament in Kolkata. (news Photos by Partha Paul)
It was because of Carlsen walking away from the world champion’s throne that Ding Liren got his shot at the throne and then Gukesh came and dethroned the Chinese grandmaster.
Carlsen’s lack of interest from playing in the Candidates to try and qualify for the world championship also means that Hikaru Nakamura has claimed the ratings spot to the Candidates. Six of the eight Candidates, Pragg, Nakamura, Caruana, Wei Yi, Javokhir Sindarov and Anish Giri were in India for the Global Chess League until last evening, as was the world champion Gukesh. All of them have flown off to Qatar for the start of the World Rapid and Blitz Championship, which is the last tournament of 2025.