Praggnanandhaa's reaction goes viral after he suffers shock loss to former coach at World Rapid Championship

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa suffered a surprising defeat at the FIDE World Rapid Championship 2025 after losing from a winning position against his former coach, GM Sandipan Chanda. The loss came in Round 5 and proved to be a major talking point on an eventful opening day of the tournament in Doha.

Sandipan Chanda was in stunning form and played a series of aggressive games to score a hat-trick of wins. He defeated big names like Levon Aronian and Praggnanandhaa in back-to-back rounds. Against Pragg, Chanda took advantage of late mistakes and turned the game around despite being under pressure earlier.

The win was especially notable as Chanda had previously worked closely with Praggnanandhaa and his sister R Vaishali during their early years, making the result an emotional moment for both. Praggnanandhaa’s reaction after he realised his blunder is going viral on social media.

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Pragg in Disbelief 😢

Edit: @ram_abhyudaya#chess #chessbaseindia #praggnanandhaa pic.twitter.com/71pJ663CpE

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) December 27, 2025

According to ChessbaseIndia, Sandipan had mentored the Indian brother-sister duo in their formative years through his association with the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA), which was founded by chess legend Viswanathan Anand.

Gukesh, Carlsen lead the standings

Overall, Chanda finished the first five rounds on an impressive 4 points out of 5, the same as GM Nihal Sarin. Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa had a mixed day. After winning his opening game, he struggled to maintain momentum, managing a couple of draws before suffering defeats, including the shocking loss to Chanda and another earlier setback against a much lower-rated opponent.

At the top of the standings, reigning world champion D Gukesh, India’s top-rated player Arjun Erigaisi and world No.1 Magnus Carlsen led the field with 4.5 points each after the end of Day 1. Carlsen looked dominant but was held to a draw by Erigaisi in the final round of the day.