Magnus Carlsen rates R Praggnanandhaa as ‘third-favourite’ for Candidates 2026
Former world chess champion Magnus Carlsen rated Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa third among the favourites to win the Candidates 2026 tournament.
Praggnanandhaa qualified for the Candidates by topping the FIDE 2025 circuit and will be the only Indian representative at the eight-player tournament which will happen in Cyprus from March 28 to April 16.
Carlsen picked American Grandmasters Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura as the most likeliest to win the Candidates and secure a chance to challenge India’s D Gukesh for the world title.
“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,” Carlsen told Chess.com.
“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,” added Carlsen.
The current world No. 1 has distanced himself from the world championship framework, allowing second-ranked Nakamura to qualify for the Candidates through the FIDE ratings route.
Candidates 2026 Field
Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, Matthias Blübaum, Javokhir Sindarov, Wei Yi, Andrey Esipenko, R Praggnanandhaa, Hikaru Nakamura.
Published on Dec 25, 2025