4 min readMar 31, 2026 12:38 PM IST
While poor form leading into a Candidates chess might simply be guarding his cards close, Indian GM R Praggnanandhaa seems to have shrugged off the lead-up doldrums, and started well at Cyprus.
His draw with Chinese GM Wei Yi, in the second game, saw him hold strong and mostly stay in an advantageous position, to remain undefeated after first two days. His win against GM Anish Giri had ofcourse put his campaign on a good footing, though it’s only a start.
Pragg got asked about his recent poor form by a reporter at the FIDE press conference, and said, “I think I still need to learn from it because I played like five tournaments in the last six months, and all five of them went poorly. I think it’s something I should learn to recover from a bad tournament. But here, it’s just a start. A good start is great, but I still have to play my best. There are 12 more games, so I have to keep focusing and keep giving my best.”
The ‘French defence’ tends to be a popular opening, and the Indian player said it had helped him stay ahead on the clock, using the opening. The French gave him almost a 1 hour advantage on clock.
“I don’t think the French defense itself was a surprise. I mean, I’ve played the French recently, so I don’t think it will come as a big surprise. But yeah, it’s not clear what I actually played after that, because I have played a lot of lines, many different lines even though I have only a few games,” he told FIDE.
The segue offered enough of a surprise element, he reckoned. “So I thought what I played would come as a little surprise. And I think I got a good position out of the opening and a good time advantage. I can’t really complain about the opening today,” he said.
Pragg quibbled, on critical moment in the game, Praggnanandhaa said, “I think castle f6. Black should be okay. Yeah, I was quite happy with my position, like knight e5. I thought queen c7 is good. And then this plan of rook f7. I mean what happened in the game later… but I think I should have just played c4 here instead of rook f7.” It offered Wei Yi an off-ramp to get out of trouble.
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He reckoned c4 was a better choice. “It stops f5 and I can play rook f7 next and then just start rolling the pawns. I don’t see White’s plan clearly and Black’s moves are just free flowing. I don’t know what the computer says here, but I think c4 should be practically good for Black,” he said.
However, Pragg was content with how the match had panned out. “Maybe we could have played a bit better but I think it was just fine for both of us. I don’t think I’m sure there were many other options which were also equal but I think what we played look logical and look like decent moves.”
The first question thrown at Pragg in the conference was ‘Tell us about your accommodation and everything.”
Pragg said, “I thought we were going to talk about the game.”
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When poked further, Pragg relented with a chuckle, “Everything is great, yaar.”
