FIDE Grand Swiss: Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Vishy Anand missing
The FIDE Grand Swiss will have 172 players taking part, of which 116 will be in the open section while 56 will compete in the women's tournament. There are 12 Indians in the open section out of the 101 players who have qualified (the rest of the 15 players will get picked by nomination from organisers or the FIDE president or continental quotas). World champion Gukesh leads the Indians, along with Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa. The other Indians who will be in action are: Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani, Murali Karthikeyan, Abhimanyu Puranik, Aryan Chopra, Leon Luke Mendonca, and SL Narayanan. Meanwhile, the women's event has Humpy Koneru, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal in the fray.
The time control for each game is: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.
Interestingly, a player like Carlsen could not have qualified for the event because as per the regulations in place by FIDE, only players who played at least 30 rated games counted in any of the 12 standard rating periods from July 2024 to June 2025 are eligible. Carlsen has sworn off of classical chess and only makes an exception for the Norway Chess event at his home country. But had he expressed an inclination to compete at the event, he could have earned a spot through nomination, since the FIDE president has six FIDE wildcards to allot while the local organiser too will have five spots at their disposal.
The prize fund in the Open is $625,000 (increased from $460,000 in 2023) and in the Women's competition features a $230,000 prize fund (up from $140,000 in 2023).
While the world's top 3 ranked players are missing, the Indians will have to battle their way against some top players like Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Boris Gelfand, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Fedoseev, Hans Niemann, Vincent Keymer and Javokhir Sindarov.
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First Post
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- First Post
Rising star Divya Deshmukh can prove Garry Kasparov wrong, follow Judit Polgar's footsteps; here's how
After winning the 2025 Women's Chess World Cup in style and becoming India's 88th Grandmaster, Divya Deshmukh faces a brand new challenge – that of competing in the 'Open' category of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, alongside reigning world champion D Gukesh among others. Indian Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh could follow Judit Polgar's footsteps in proving Garry Kasparov's infamous quote on female players wrong as she competes in the 'Open' category of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss. Image: FIDE/Reuters Divya Deshmukh has been the biggest talking point in Indian chess recently, with the 19-year-old charting a sensational journey to victory at the FIDE Women's World Cup in Georgia's Batumi last month. Divya had entered the tournament as an International Master but left with the word 'Grandmaster' next to her name, acquiring the title without having to fulfill the three norms. Along the way, she defeated three players ranked in the world top-10 including veteran GM Koneru Humpy in a historic all-Indian final. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The young star, who qualified for next year's Women's Candidates along with Humpy, faces a brand new challenge – that of competing in the 'Open' category at the upcoming FIDE Grand Swiss tournament. Divya, after all, has received a wildcard entry into the 'Open' category along with Russia's Aleksandra Goryachkina, and is part of a stacked field that also comprises reigning Classical world champion D Gukesh as well as Indian No 1 R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi. What Kasparov had said about female chess players back in 1989 In the process, Divya has the opportunity to follow the legendary Judit Polgar's footsteps in proving Russian chess icon Garry Kasparov's controversial quote on female chess players wrong. 'Well, in the past, I have said that there is real chess and women's chess. Some people don't like to hear this, but chess does not fit women properly. It's a fight, you know? A big fight. It's not for women. Sorry. She's helpless if she has men's opposition,' Kasparov, counted among the greatest chess players of all time, had told the Playboy magazine in 1989. 'I think this is very simple logic. It's the logic of a fighter, a professional fighter. Women are weaker fighters,' he added. Polgar, of course, would force Kasparov to take back his comment with a trailblazing career in which the Hungarian GM became the only woman to break into the FIDE Classical top-10 in the 'Open' category and achieve an ELO rating above 2700. 'Makes complete sense to compete in a stronger event' Though Divya has a long way to go if she is to emulate Polgar's rich legacy, GM Shyam Sundar Mohanraj, a chess coach who has worked with several Indian women players in the past, feels she certainly is on the right track at the moment. 'At this age, especially, she will of course be very ambitious and focus on reaching 2700, which is a dream for any player. She is close to 2500 now, so it makes complete sense to compete in a stronger event. She will be playing more GMs, and she can test her preparation and how determined she is to give a strong comeback,' Shyam Sundar told The Times of India. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Even if she scores less than 50 per cent out of the possible 11 rounds, still it will be a good experience for her, regardless of the rating, whatever happens, minus 10, 30, whatever it is, it will be a much-needed and greater experience. At a young age, Judith Polgar started playing in the Open sections, and that is how she became strong in the way,' he added. The FIDE Grand Swiss takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan from 3 to 15 September, with the top two players set to qualify for next year's Candidates Tournament.
The Hindu
9 hours ago
- The Hindu
Divya Deshmukh's bold and right move
So Divya Deshmukh will be taking on the men at the FIDE Grand Swiss chess tournament in Uzbekistan next month. She would have stood a better chance of winning the title if she had opted to play in the women's section of the high profile event. Instead she has chosen to start as one of the lower seeds in the open category (unlike in other sports, women are free to compete with men in chess). She got a wild card from FIDE for the open section along with Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina. The biggest attraction about the Grand Swiss is that the champion and the runner-up will qualify for next year's Candidates tournament. That event is the qualifier for the World championship. Divya and Goryachkina have already booked their tickets for the Candidates: the Indian as the winner of the recent World Cup and the Russian from the FIDE Women's Grand Prix. So their decision to play in the open event at the Grand Swiss makes sense. Regardless of their results, Divya and Goryachkina will gain from their experience at Samarkand. After becoming the first Indian woman to lift the World Cup, the 19-year-old is now at an important stage of her career. Playing against higher rated male players could make her a stronger player. The woman whom she defeated in the World Cup final, Koneru Humpy, is an example. The first woman from India to get the Grandmaster title had tried to play as many open tournaments as possible, from the time she was a little girl. And Humpy often ruffled many a male ego. She, in fact, won the Asian under-12 boys' title in 1999. She was also sensational at a couple of National men's 'A' championships, winning successive games. Hungary's Judit Polgar was the one who showed the way to Humpy and other female warriors on the chessboard. She was once ranked No. 8 in the world among men (the more politically correct term 'open' would come in vogue only later). And her victims included several male World champions including Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand. Before Judit Polgar, there have been players like Pia Cramling, the Swedish great who played at both the open and women's Olympiads. To go back to the Grand Swiss: the reigning champions are both Indians. In what was one of the greatest moments for India chess, Vidit Gujrathi and R. Vaishali had triumphed in the open and women's sections respectively, much against the odds, on the Isle of Man in late 2023.
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First Post
13 hours ago
- First Post
Divya set to compete in 'Open' section of 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss alongside Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun
Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh, who had recently defeated Koneru Humpy in an all-Indian Women's Chess World Cup final recently, has been added to the open section of the FIDE Grand Swiss along with Russia's Aleksandra Goryachkina. Divya Deshmukh had become India's 88th Grandmaster after winning the FIDE Women's World Cup in July. Image credit: FIDE After her heroics at the FIDE Women's World Cup in Georgia, where she defeated three players ranked among the women's top-10 including compatriot Koneru Humpy in the final, Indian Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh has been added to the 'Open' section of the upcoming FIDE Grand Swiss event. Divya part of a field comprising Gukesh, Pragg and Arjun The teenager thus finds herself in a stacked field that comprises leading names such as reigning world champion D Gukesh as well as Indian No 1 R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi. 'So, the news I posted yesterday about was that I will be participating in the open Grand Swiss this year,' Divya wrote in a post on Instagram, confirming her wildcard entry into the event that takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan from 3 to 15 September. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Besides Divya, who became India's 88th Grandmaster after defeating Humpy in the historic all-Indian Women's World Cup final last month, Russia's Aleksandra Goryachkina has also been added to the 'Open' section. 'Both Deshmukh and Aleksandra Goryachkina, who have already qualified for the FIDE Women's Candidates, chose to request wild cards for the FIDE Grand Swiss Open rather than compete in the FIDE Women's Grand Swiss,' FIDE said in a statement. Also Read | Gukesh recalls competing alongside Divya since age of eight, acknowledges World Cup triumph The event also features other top names such as Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Ian Nepomniachtchi among others. The 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss will be crucial for those hoping to challenge Gukesh's reign as the world champion, for it offers two spots for next year's Candidates Tournament. Only one player – world No 3 Fabiano Caruana – has confirmed his place in the next Candidates as the 2024 FIDE Circuit winner. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD After her heroics at the World Cup, where she qualified for next year's Women's Candidates along with Humpy and third-placed Tan Zhongyi, Divya had competed at Women's Speed Chess Championships, where she fought a pitched battle againsst world No 1 Hou Yifan in the quarter-finals, losing in the tie-breaks after the scores stood level at 9.5-9.5.
