Dubov tears into Praggnanandhaa, classical chess after win at World Cup: ‘He failed to pose a single problem, prep took 10 minutes’

Russian Grandmaster Daniil Dubov criticised classical chess and R Praggnanandhaa after eliminating the Indian from the FIDE World Cup 2025 in Goa on Thursday. After playing out two draws, the Round 4 game between Dubov and Praggnanandhaa entered the rapid tiebreaks, where the former rapid world champion emerged victorious.

After his unexpected win over 2023 runner-up Praggnanandhaa, who has earned a big reputation in classical chess, Dubov said that the Indian Grandmaster never had a great tournament while also revealing that his game plan was to be more ambitious with black pieces rather than the advantageous white.

“Generally Praggnanandhaa didn’t show his best in this tournament, not only in this match,” Dubov told FIDE. “I would say it was very close but I think I had some little precious role in the match despite the will to make a draw with white pieces. I didn’t actually mind playing. But it’s just that with white against someone like Pragg who is prepared this well I actually don’t know how to get out of the opening like without taking too much risk.

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“So I actually told my friends that this is the strategy: we make draws with white and with black we actually play, because he’s always ambitious with white. The same happened today: it’s not that I was scared or wanted to play blitz so much. It’s just that I kind of realized I will probably have better chances with black in the long run. He tried to play. I think he got outplayed frankly and somehow I managed to deliver. Maybe I played a little bit better, maybe not. Anyway, it’s very much about luck,”

Dubov takes a dig at Praggnanandhaa after World Cup win

Later criticising classical chess and Praggnanandhaa, Dubov said that there’s so much preparation available that it took only 10 minutes on the phone to prepare for matches against the Indian Grandmaster, who, as per him, failed to pose a single challenge against him despite lengthy preparation.

“I have to say generally I’m not the biggest fan of classical chess. I like chess a lot and it’s not that I hate thinking. It’s just that with this amount of prep, I don’t even know… like preparing for two classical games against Pragg took me 10 minutes with the phone all together. I didn’t even use my laptop. Then I did it for the first time during the match in between the (rapid) games today. It’s like everybody knows everything. I don’t mind playing,” Dubov said.

“I’m just saying I personally don’t know how to really get out of the opening with white and how to get an advantage. People don’t like it but then suddenly when I face Pragg and he’s someone who probably spends day and night looking at stuff. I mean he still fails to pose a single problem with white. So maybe it’s not about me. It’s probably about chess here. I mean we are getting to the point where like too many things will be well known. Still despite that it’s always nice to win.”

Dubov, however, also praised Praggnanandhaa and his rise in world chess.

“I mean it’s not like Pragg’s fault. Generally it’s just that his style is that he’s simply good at chess. I don’t think there is a Mikhail Tal anymore. It’s not that you can be playing one exact style. I’ve never been close to Pragg’s strength, right? I’ve never been in the top five in the world. You cannot get there by only sacrificing pieces (like Tal). So Pragg’s style is very universal. He’s simply very good at chess.”

While Praggnanandhaa was eliminated on Thursday, Arjun Erigaisi and Pentala Harikrishna progressed to the fifth round. The tournament began with 24 Indians in contention.