Sports lovers of the City of Joy will remember November 22 for more than just the historic first pink-ball cricket Test featuring India. The day also marks another first, with India hosting an event of the $1.75 million Grand Chess Tour (GCT).
India has hosted the World championship, World Cup, Candidates matches, World junior championship and more with government support. But it took private initiative to end the long wait for a truly premier event. What adds sheen to the Tata Steel rapid and blitz tournament, beginning at the National Library here on Friday, is the presence of World champion and the game’s top-ranked player Magnus Carlsen.
The Norwegian last visited India in 2013 as the World championship challenger and dethroned five-time winner Viswanathan Anand in Chennai.
This is the last stop of the seven-leg Tour before the four-player GCT Finals during the London Chess Classic next month.
The Tour, in its fifth season, includes two classical time-format events, offering $325,000 each. Other five combine rapid and blitz formats, each offering $150,000. The Finals includes all three formats. A participant may play a maximum of five events.
For the $350,000 LCC, Carlsen and World No. 3 Ding Liren have already qualified. Going purely by form and the field, Levon Aronian and Anand appear the strongest contenders for the remaining berths.
Significantly, the quartet is part of the field here.
The 2018 Tour winner and defending champion Hikaru Nakamura, World Random Fischer champion Wesley So, Anish Giri and Ian Nepomniachtchi, fifth and sixth in classical world rankings, are the other overseas players. Wild-cards P. Hari Krishna and Vidit Gujrathi complete the line-up.
Last year, Nakamura won the rapid format and finished runner-up to Anand in blitz. The success of that ‘test event’ paved the way for this edition becoming part of the Tour.
Anand’s move
Anand, sixth in Tour rankings, needs to finish sixth or higher here to move past Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Sergey Karjakin, presently placed third and fifth. The duo has already figured in five events.
On Thursday, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly joined Anand and Carlsen during the draw of lots. Anand plays Liren, So and Nepomniachtchi on Friday.
