Dec 26, 2024 08:46 PM IST
World champion Gukesh celebrates as Arjun Erigaisi goals to problem him in 2026, competing within the $1.5M World fast and blitz match in NYC.
Bengaluru: Whereas India’s newly topped world champion soaks within the celebrations, it’s now hustle time for his friends to aim to battle him for the title two years from now. Main that pack is India’s highest-ranked participant, world No. 4 Arjun Erigaisi.
Arjun Erigaisi, at world No. 4, is India’s highest-ranked participant and is presently positioned second on the Fide circuit leaderboard (PTI)
The 21-year-old is presently positioned second on the Fide circuit leaderboard – one of many pathways to qualify for the Candidates. Arjun is six factors behind America’s Fabiano Caruana within the Fide circuit and each gamers will characteristic within the year-end $1.5 million World fast and blitz match in New York Metropolis’s Wall Road, that runs until December 31. Whoever tops the Fide circuit standings will immediately qualify for the Candidates – the eight-player match that determines who will problem reigning world champion D Gukesh within the 2026 World Championship match.
Defending champion and high seed Magnus Carlsen, the plain match favorite, picked Arjun amongst his high 5 rivals within the occasion. Arjun has had a stellar yr to this point – cracking the Elo 2800 membership, turning into India’s highest-ranked participant and scoring an Olympiad gold on board three with a surprising 10.0/11. Toppling world No. 2 Caruana from the Fide circuit lead on this year-end match although may not be a straightforward process for Arjun. His finest probability would possibly relaxation on having to go so far as successful the fast occasion.
World champion Gukesh is taking a well-deserved break and is anticipated to be again in motion on the Tata Metal Chess in Wijk Aan Zee subsequent month.
This yr’s occasion is being touted as one of many strongest tournaments to happen within the USA and can characteristic the likes of world No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So, Nodirbek Abdusattorov amongst others. Carlsen has gained the fast occasion 5 instances and the blitz occasion six instances, taking dwelling the dual titles in Samarkand final yr. Since he relinquished the classical world title, the world fast and blitz match has been amongst Carlsen’s main searching grounds. With Carlsen shifting focus, the match has additionally gained reputation in Norway in recent times.
Other than Arjun, among the many 16 different Indians within the match are R Praggnanandhaa, Raunak Sadhwani. Pranav V, Aravindh Chithambaram, Koneru Humpy, Vaishali R, Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal.
The Open part may have 13 rounds whereas 11 rounds shall be performed within the ladies’s part for the fast occasion. The time management shall be quarter-hour with a 10-second increment per transfer. In blitz stage 1, the ladies and open sections may have the identical variety of rounds as in fast. It is going to be adopted by a knockout stage 2 – the place high eight gamers from every part will advance and play the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. The time management for blitz shall be 3 minutes with a 2-second increment per transfer.
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