India’s Gukesh D secured his spot at the prestigious Candidates tournament which will take place in Toronto from April 2 to 25 next year after Anish Giri failed to finish at the top of the standings in the FIDE World Blitz tournament at Samarkand in Uzbekistan.
Gukesh’s qualification means that for the first time in history, three Indians — Praggnanandhaa R and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi being the other two — will compete in the round-robin tournament. The winner of the Candidates gets the chance to take on China’s Ding Liren in the next world chess championship.
Gukesh and Giri were in the race for the final spot in the eight-man Candidates event which is held to find out a contender to battle the reigning world champion. The Dutch GM Giri needed to finish in the top 3 at the World Rapid Championship or win the World Blitz Championship, but was unable to do neither.
The other Indian in the fray, Arjun Erigaisi, needed to win the World Rapid event to stand a chance of qualifying.
Gukesh took the final spot in the eight-man field. The rest of the players who will feature in the Candidates are: Ian Nepomniachtchi (qualified by virtue of losing in the last world chess championship), Praggnanandhaa (qualified by finishing 2nd at the FIDE World Cup earlier this year), Fabiano Caruana (qualified by finishing 3rd at the FIDE World Cup earlier this year), Nijat Abasov (this spot should go to Magnus Carlsen, who won the FIDE World Cup earlier this year, but he has said he will forgo the right the compete which means Abasov will secure the spot by courtesy finishing 4th at the World Cup), Vidit (qualified by winning the 2023 Grand Swiss), Hikaru Nakamura (qualified by finishing second in the 2023 Grand Swiss), Alireza Firouzja (qualified via the ratings spot).
World No 1 Magnus Carlsen claimed the World Blitz title to add to the World Rapid crown he had won on Thursday. This was Carlsen’s 7th World Blitz title and his 17th overall across the three formats.
The Women’s Candidates Tournament will also be held with the Open Candidates event, where Vaishali Rameshbabu will be representing India, and will likely be joined by Koneru Humpy.
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First uploaded on: 30-12-2023 at 19:49 IST
