Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa

Known to fans as Pragg, the Chennai grandmaster is having his biggest year yet. In 2026 he became the first Indian to win Norway Chess, beating Magnus Carlsen in both of their classical games, and then won the Grand Chess Tour, coming back against Fabiano Caruana in the final.

He was a prodigy even by modern standards: the youngest international master in history at 10, and a grandmaster at 12. He and his older sister Vaishali are the first brother and sister to both earn the grandmaster title, and the first to both reach the Candidates.

His breakthrough came at the 2023 World Cup, where he beat Caruana in the semi-final to become the youngest finalist ever. Since then he has won Olympiad gold with India in 2024, Tata Steel in 2025, and the 2025 FIDE Circuit, which sent him to the 2026 Candidates.