Arjun, Pragg & Vaishali to feature in Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot - The Indian Express
Three Indians will take part in the inaugural Total Chess World Championship Tour set to be held in Budapest from November 10–20 with R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and Vaishali Rameshbabu all set to feature. The 24-player tournament will also host other big names in world chess like 5-time world champion Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Hans Niemann among others.
The new tournament will feature four events as part of a tour each year that will be held across various cities: there will be three events with 24 players at first while the fourth event will be the finale with only four players. The event aims to crown the world’s best player across all three existing formats as the FIDE World Combined Champion.
Presently, there are three world championships in chess: the classical world championship which is held every two years while the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship event crowns the World Rapid Champion and the World Blitz Champion each year in December.
The format used at the events will be “fast classic” (45-minute games with increment of 30 seconds per move), rapid, and blitz chess. It is learnt that in the group stage, players will play fast classic games. Since the games are much shorter than regular classical chess games, there will be two games per day. Then, in the semis and the final, players will face off in all three formats to decide an overall winner.
Even though the fast classic format will be much shorter than regular classical games, games played in the format will be rated as per the classical section. The tour will also offer Candidates qualification opportunities in the Classical World Championship cycle.
Magnus Carlsen (Norway) — World No. 1 Fabiano Caruana (United States) — World No. 3 Wesley So (United States) — World No. 5 Vincent Keymer (Germany) — World No. 6 Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) — World No. 7 R Praggnanandhaa (India) — World No. 8 Arjun Erigaisi (India) — World No. 9 Anish Giri (Netherlands) — World No. 10 Alireza Firouzja (France) — World No. 11 Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) — World No. 13 Liem Le (Vietnam) – World No. 18 Richard Rapport (Hungary) — World No. 19 Levon Aronian (USA) – World No. 20 Hans Moke Niemann (United States) — World No. 21 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) – World No. 22 Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE) — World No. 23 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) — World No. 24 Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands) – World No. 30 Haik M. Martirosyan (Armenia) — World No. 50 Vladislav Artemiev (FIDE) — World No. 65 Abhimanyu Mishra (USA) – World No. 96 – World’s Youngest Grandmaster Andrew Hong (USA) – World No. 152 Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) — Women’s World No. 5 Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) — Women’s World No. 16
