Exclusive | ‘Very surprising’: India’s World Junior Chess Champion Pranav V’s Grand Swiss 2025 entry has a wild backstory | Chess News
NEW DELHI: The desert sun glared off the hoods of two Mercedes-Benz cars as they rolled up to the entrance of Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, UAE. From the black car stepped out the 2024 World Junior Champion, GM Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan. From the white, India’s GM Pranav Venkatesh, the newly crowned 2025 World Junior Champion.There were no crowds, no fanfare. Not even a tournament banner fluttered in the wind. And yet, what happened next would punch a hole in the chess calendar.In a match nobody saw coming, one that wasn’t announced, promoted, or even widely known to exist, 18-year-old Pranav toppled 21-year-old Nogerbek 1.5–0.5.The prize? A wildcard entry into the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, one of the brutal gateways to the 2026 Candidates Tournament and ultimately, the World Championship.‘I thought I’m not going to play Grand Swiss’With Nigeria’s Tennyson Ewomazino Olisa, Chile’s Cristobal Henriquez Villagra, and France’s Jules Moussard already filling three of the four continental spots for Grand Swiss 2025, Pranav completes the list by securing the final one through a special wildcard match.The match, which FIDE later dubbed the ‘Asian Wildcard Match’, was so low-profile, it caught even the teenager GM off guard. “It was very surprising because I thought, okay, this year I’m not going to play in the Grand Swiss,” Pranav, who attained the Grandmaster (GM) title in 2022, told TimesofIndia.com in an exclusive interview.“But suddenly, I got this mail from the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) saying they wanted to organise a match for the wild card. And yeah, that’s how it happened.”The stakes, however, were immense. The top two finishers in the Grand Swiss would qualify directly for the 2026 Candidates Tournament, the final eight-player gauntlet before the World Chess Championship match against D Gukesh.‘I should have qualified by rating’Pranav had missed the Grand Swiss cut on rating by a whisker. But fate, and a secretive opportunity, came calling.“For the FIDE Grand Swiss, I should have qualified by rating. But in the exact month when they took the qualification, my rating dropped a bit,” the 2597-rated player said.Organised by the ACF, the match was a two-day sprint using the same time control as the Grand Swiss: 100 minutes for 40 moves, 50 for the next 20, and 15 for the remainder. Pranav had never played a format quite like it.“First of all, this time control, I have never played such a long time control. Also, I have never played a match like this, where it’s just like a knockout, you play two games,” he explained.“I just did the normal stuff: with Black I tried to be very solid, and with White I was trying to win. That worked… I drew the first game with Black quite easily. And the second game, it was a long one: a rook endgame, which is always not that easy. We both made some mistakes… but yes, he made the final mistake.”Pranav joins an elite line-upThat mistake would pave the way for Pranav’s Grand Swiss debut in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from September 3 to 16.It will be an 11-round Swiss format behemoth featuring 116 of the world’s best in the Open section alone. Besides the two coveted spots in the 2026 Candidates, it will also feature a massive $625,000 prize pool.
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With the wildcard, Pranav joins a stacked Indian lineup that includes World Champion D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, and R Praggnanandhaa. International heavyweights like Alireza Firouzja, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Anish Giri will also be in the fray.But the 18-year-old from Chennai walks in with perhaps the most unexpected invitation and the least to lose.“This year’s Grand Swiss is very strong, and I’ll just try to perform my best,” Pranav said. “In the next few tournaments I’m playing, I’ll be looking to improve my rating and try to play my best. That will be my aim going forward.”One minute, he was off the list. The next, stepping out of a white Benz in the middle of the UAE heat, earning his seat at one of the most important, prestigious tournaments of his young career.Out of nowhere? Perhaps. But make no mistake; Pranav V is ready for the spotlight.
