I’m more ambitious and I want to win more tournaments when playing’

The charm, and perhaps the complexities, of franchise leagues is that lines tend to get blurred.

- Rutvick Mehta [e-mail]

R Praggnanandhaa in action at the Global Chess League.

So, in a room where R Praggnanandhaa was speaking about his year gone by and the 2026 Candidates, sitting metres across the table was Fabiano Caruana, his 2026 Candidates competitor but Alpine SG Pipers teammates in this Global Chess League (GCL).“It’s not like I'm going to give you the names, anyway,” Pragg laughed, when asked about assembling a team for the key tournament in March-April.

Ina chat with select media here on Monday, the world No.7 spoke about becoming more ambitious as a player, why the success of D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi fuelled it and his Candidates qualification last week.

On his solid year (won 4 events, was Second in 2).

Tm more ambitious. I want to win tournaments when I'm playing. And I'm able to do it (laughs). There is no, like, one specific reason. It’s also the hard work that I've been putting in for years, I think that also showed.

On how the feeling to be “more ambitious” came about.