Praggnanandhaa Wins FIDE Circuit To Qualify For Candidates, Nakamura Also In

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has announced GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu as the winner of the FIDE Circuit 2025, securing him a spot for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. GM Hikaru Nakamura is also destined to clinch the final rating spot, making the field complete.

Praggnanandhaa's qualification had seemed inevitable for a while, but this week it finally become official: The 20-year-old will compete in the Candidates Tournament in Cyprus from March 29 to April 16, 2026.

His Circuit victory caps off an outstanding year during which he won major events such as the Tata Steel Chess Masters, the SuperBet Classic Romania, the UzChess Cup Masters, and finished second in both the Stepan Avagyan Memorial and the Sinquefield Cup.

🇮🇳 Praggnanandhaa R has won the FIDE Circuit 2025, securing a spot in the 2026 Candidates Tournament!

👏 Congratulations to @rpraggnachess, who deservedly earned one of the eight slots in the 2026 Candidates. The young Indian has been the best FIDE Circuit player throughout the… pic.twitter.com/AsT52Ky4mO

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) December 8, 2025

"I am overall very happy with my performance throughout the year. I think I have shown some good-quality chess, and I am happy with that. I want to thank my whole team for always believing in me, even through some rough patches and some rough tournaments," the 20-year-old shared in a video posted on X.

I think I have shown some good-quality chess, and I am happy with that.
—Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu

Happy to have won the FIDE Circuit 2025, securing a spot in the 2026 Candidates Tournament. Thanks to coaches, family, and everyone who's supported me.
Will keep working hard and giving my best. pic.twitter.com/UpG0Iv2SFd

— Praggnanandhaa (@rpraggnachess) December 9, 2025

The 20-year-old already took control of the FIDE Circuit in May and never relinquished his lead. By late November, most of his closest challengers, GMs Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, Matthias Bluebaum, and Javokhir Sindarov, had already secured their Candidates places through other qualification paths. That left only GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov with a theoretical chance to catch him.

That led Praggnanandhaa to make a late appearance in the London Chess Classic Open to remove all doubt. It paid off, as the Indian scored 7/9 in a strong field, tied for first place, and earned another 8.17 Circuit points. That was enough to secure overall victory in the Candidates race.

That meant that one of the best performances of the year, Abdusattorov's spectacular 7.5/9, 2932 performance in the London Chess Classic Elite, was not enough to close the gap despite earning him 19.62 Circuit points. Calculations showed that even if he finished the year by taking sole first in both the World Rapid and Blitz Championships, he would be behind Abdusattorov. The margins are so thin, however, that if Nakamura reversed his decision and played then the fields would become strong enough that Abdusattorov could still earn enough points to win the Circuit.

On November 11, Chess.com reported Nakamura had qualified for Cyprus through the rating spot, which goes to the highest-rated player by average rating from August 2025 until January 2026. While FIDE has not yet confirmed that, it's clear that the 38-year-old will be the eighth player.

The only player who could take the spot is GM Magnus Carlsen, but the Norwegian has repeatedly stated that he will not participate in the World Championship cycle and would also fall short of the required minimum number of classical games unless he goes on an unlikely 23-game run in the last few weeks of the year.

That means chess fans can prepare for an exciting Candidates 2026 field, where five of the participants are among the top 10, while the three remaining players are ranked 22nd to 43rd.

With all eight participants known, attention can now turn to Cyprus next spring, where the Candidates Tournament will decide who earns the right to challenge GM Gukesh Dommaraju for the World Championship title.