‘Americans Are The Favourites, Then We Got…’ World No.1 Magnus Carlsen Places Indian Champion R Praggnanandhaa At Third Spot Among Top Contenders

Former world chess champion Magnus Carlsen has rated Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa third among the favourites to win the Candidates 2026 tournament.

Praggnanandhaa registered a place for himself in the competition after topping the FIDE 2025 circuit. He will be the only Indian representative in the eight-player tournament which is scheduled to take place in Cyprus from March 28 to April 16.

“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.

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.

The current world number one has chosen to step away from the World Championship system. Because of this decision, the second-ranked player, Hikaru Nakamura, was able to qualify for the Candidates Tournament through the FIDE ratings qualification path.

In simple terms, the top-ranked player is not taking part in the usual World Championship process, and this opened the door for Nakamura to earn his place based on his high rating.

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