Chess
D Gukesh secures Candidates spot, becomes third Indian to qualify
For the first time in history, three Indians- R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, and Vidit Gujrathi will feature in the FIDE Candidates tournament.
D Gukesh became the youngest champion in the history of the FIDE Candidates on April 22, 2024.
D Gukesh secured the final spot at the prestigious FIDE Candidates tournament which will take place in Toronto from April 2 to 25 next year on Saturday.
After Anish Giri failed to finish at the top of the standings in the FIDE World Blitz tournament at Samarkand in Uzbekistan, D Gukesh became the third Indian to qualify for the tournament.
For the first time in history, three Indians — R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi will feature in FIDE Candidates which will be played 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.
D Gukesh and Anish Giri were in the race for the last spot in the tournament as Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Nijat Abasov, Vidit, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa had secured their qualification.
The Dutch GM Giri needed to finish in the top 3 at the World Rapid Championship or win the World Blitz Championship but could not do either paving the way for the qualification of Gukesh.
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 who created history will be representing India, and will likely be joined by Koneru Humpy.
