New Delhi will host the FIDE World Cup later this yr, two All India Chess Federation (AICF) office-bearers have confirmed to The Indian Categorical. The October 31-November 27 occasion is more likely to be held both at Bharat Mandapam or Yashobhoomi.
The AICF had up to now not confirmed a number metropolis for the World Cup. The World Cup would be the largest occasion of the yr for a lot of of India’s prime chess stars like Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi, because it gives the highest three finishers a spot on the prestigious Candidates event. The Candidates is the ultimate step to pick the challenger to Gukesh on the subsequent World Chess Championship in 2026. On the final World Cup in 2023, Praggnanandhaa had reached the ultimate to qualify for the 2024 Candidates. He had defeated the likes of Erigaisi, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana earlier than operating into Magnus Carlsen within the closing and shedding that recreation.
An AICF official additionally mentioned that India will make a bid to host the 2026 World Championship, the place Gukesh will defend his world championship crown towards a yet-to-be-determined challenger.
“We had proposed to the federal government that the World Cup be hosted at Delhi and we now have acquired an NOC. So it can most likely be hosted by Delhi. Bharat Mandapam and Yashobhoomi are the prime candidates to host the occasion,” an AICF official mentioned. “The tender for the World Chess Championship for 2026 just isn’t but opened. However we’ll make a powerful bid for that and attempt to get that occasion to India as effectively.”
Two Indian cities, New Delhi and Chennai, had been in a three-city race for the World Chess Championship in 2024, the place Gukesh defeated Ding Liren to turn out to be the 18th world champion within the sport. Finally Singapore edged out each cities.
AICF pitched Yashobhoomi because the venue for the 2024 World Chess Championship as effectively. In the meantime, Bharat Mandapam hosted the G20 Leaders Summit in 2023.
With 206 gamers competing within the occasion, successful the FIDE World Cup is so difficult that even Carlsen received it for the primary time in 2023. The World Cup is performed in a knockout format over eight rounds. The highest 50 seeded gamers enter the motion from the second spherical onwards. Every one-on-one match on the FIDE World Cup is performed as a set of two classical video games, with colors exchanged between recreation 1 and a couple of. If the 2 video games can’t resolve a winner, there are tiebreaks.
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In addition to the FIDE World Cup, India can even host a Ladies’s Grand Prix occasion in Pune.