Vidit Gujrathi books his spot in the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour

Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi qualified for the Paris leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam Chess Tour, scheduled for April 8-15.

Vidit beat Richard Rapport 1.5-0.5 in the play-in finals to secure his spot late on Friday night. In the semifinal, the Indian dominated Amin Tabatabaei of Iran, winning 2-0.

Coincidently, he will be travelling to Paris for the series only a few days after his wedding.

“I get married on April 3, and now it seems the honeymoon will be in Paris!" Vidit joked in an interview with Chess.com.

The 30-year-old had been away from chess for the last 3-4 months. Vidit admitted that he was not expecting to do so well at the play-ins.

“I’m feeling great. For me, it was very unexpected that I would do so well in this tournament. Because I haven’t been practicing chess for the last three-four months. I have just been busy with other stuff. So it was a very pleasant surprise, it went really smooth,” he said after his win.

“Before the tournament began, I was not ready, I felt rusty. I thought it could be very embarrassing if it doesn’t go well,” he added.

After winning the spot, Vidit’s fiancé Nidhi posted on Instagram, saying, “After being out of practice since the last few months to winning this! Vidit 3.0 has just begun.”

Dominating performance

In the final, Vidit won the first round and he continued his stellar performance in the second round too. A draw would have been enough to earn him the spot.

Vidit defeated former world champion Ding Liren in the round of 16 and compatriot Pranesh M in the quarters. Paris will be Vidit’s first freestyle chess event over-the-board.

Vidit will be competing in the 10-player field alongside three Indians. D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, and R Praggnanandhaa are the other Indians in the fray. 

Some of the best in the world - Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, Hikaru Nakamura, and more will be vying for the 200,000 USD prize.

The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour is a series of Chess960 tournaments in 2025 organized by Freestyle Chess Operations. Players will score points based on placement in each event. The player with the highest score at the end of the year will become the Freestyle Chess Champion.