Chess
Five Indian chess players to feature in FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Cships
The tournament is scheduled to take place in New York City from December 26-31, first time the event is going to North America.
R Praggnanandhaa recently guided the Indian men's team to their maiden Chess Olympiad gold in Budapest. (Photo Credit: PTI)
Five Indian chess players, including R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, and R Vaishali will participate in the 2024 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced on Monday that along with the three, Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli will be the five Indians to participate in the tournament, scheduled to take place from December 26-31 in New York City.
This is the first time the tournament has touched the shores of North America, with FIDE claiming that this will be the strongest edition of the tournament with the world's best players in action.
FIDE also confirmed the participation of World No.3 and American GM Hikaru Nakamura.
Besides them, World No.1 Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, and Levon Aronian are amongst the big names set to feature in this competition.
"From December 26-31, over 300 of the world's best players will battle for their share of the $1.5 million prize fund in New York City," said FIDE in their social media post.
The FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships is an annual event that brings together the world's best chess players to compete in the shorter, fast-paced formats of the game.
Participants at FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships 2024:
Open Section: Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Arjun Erigaisi, Alireza Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa, Wei Yi, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, and Levon Aronian.
Women's Section: Alexandra Kosteniuk, Mariya Muzychuk, Humpy Koneru, Lei Tingjie, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali R, Zhu Jiner, and Anna Muzychuk, among others.
