Pragg surprise entrant @ London Chess Classic Open
FIDE Circuit leader GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (2768), made a surprise appearance at the London Chess Classic Open 2025. Pragg started off with 3/3 before shedding draws to fellow Indian GM Pranav Anand (2581) and Hungarian GM Tamas Fodor Jr. (2508). This 119 player Swiss event, part of the annual London Chess Classic festival, has the participation of 26 GMs and runs from 27th November to 3rd December, 2025.
The question that rose in everyone’s mind: What brings a Super Grandmaster, World No. 7, to an Open tournament ? Well, it’s the qualification to the Candidates 2026, a lead up to the World Championship, that drove Pragg to London.
The Indian GM presently holds a big lead in the FIDE Circuit and is virtually through. The FIDE Circuit leader’s immediate rivals viz., GMs Vincent Keymer, Wesley So and Nodirbek Abdusattorov are way far behind in FIDE Circuit points and will be run down on time that concludes by 31st December, 2025. That apart, Pragg would still need to play at least one tournament with 50 or more participants for his FIDE Circuit points to be valid. And, that’s the reason why Pragg, who had won this very event in London six years ago as a 14-year-old, is back now.
The London Chess Classic, a chess festival consisting a closed Super GM tournament, an Open and a number of side events took off in 2009 and has been on without a break except during COVID times. Illustrious past winners include GMs Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Viswanathan Anand, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren and Michael Adams among others. This year the strong field has attracted GMs Alireza Firouzja, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Sam Shankland along with the youngest Grandmaster in the history of chess GM Abhimanyu Mishra.
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (2768) – Eldar Gasanov (2447) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd3 Re8 8. Nge2 Nbd7 9. O-O Nf8 10. Qc2 h6 11. Bh4 c6 12. a4 a5 13. f3 Ne6 14. Rad1 b6 15. Kh1 Bb7 16. Bf5 Ng5 17. e4 g6 18. Bxg6 fxg6 19. e5 Kf7 20. Nf4 Rg8 21. exf6 Bxf6 22. Ne4 Be7 23. Nf2 Bd6 24. N4d3 Qd7 25. f4 Ne6 26. Ng4 Kg7 27. Bf6+ Kh7 28. f5 Nf8 29. Be5 Be7 30. fxg6+ Rxg6 31. Rf7+ Kg8
32. Nxh6+ 1-0
Picture Courtesy: Grand Chess Tour / Saint Louis Chess Club
Complete Results
Official Site: https://www.londonchessclassic.com/fide-open
