15th World Champion Viswanathan Anand commented on the performance of Praggnanandhaa R in an interview with The Times of India. Vishy calls Pragg the best player in the world at the moment, and notes Pragg’s skill of winning late games.

Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand

15th World Champion

“During the Candidates, Pragg was having a kind of slump. His play had already started to decline at the end of last year, compared to the first half, but in the Candidates, it was really not very impressive. And then I thought he must have been a bit gloomy.

In Norway Chess, he was not doing well. At some point, there were four rounds left, and he was in the bottom. And then he won four games in a row.

He did something similar at the GCT Finals, though his performance was much better in Grand Chess Tour and also in the Rapid. He won the Rapid, did well enough in the Blitz to win the tournament. Then he was sort of competing for first place here.

He has this capacity, and it’s becoming more and more noticeable that he’s able to win late games and change everything. And that’s a very, very rare skill and useful skill to have.

I think at the moment, I would say he’s the number one player in the world. Well, Magnus doesn’t compete in the same events, but nonetheless, you know, if you take Classical included, and I know Pragg, in the tournaments which happened in August and all, he performed incredibly well.

If you go back to Norway Chess and then see the development from there, I think it’s just fantastic.”

Praggnanandhaa R finished 7th out of 8 at the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 in April. He won Norway Chess 2026 with a 1-point lead in June. Pragg played in four out of five Grand Chess Tour 2026 events and won the tour. He won the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz and the GCT Finals, finished second at the Sinquefield Cup, and finished third at the Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia.

Credit: Michal Walusza / FIDE