Gukesh, Humpy complete Candidates’ fields, join Praggnanandhaa, Vidit and Vaishali

A fabulous year for Indian chess ended with the heart-warming news of D. Gukesh and K. Humpy taking the eighth and final spot in their respective Candidates Tournaments, scheduled in Toronto from April 2 to 25, 2024.

The winners of these eight-player events, to be played for the first time at the same venue, will earn the right to challenge the reigning World champions for the title. Currently, Chinese Ding Liren and Ju Wenjun hold the World titles.

Since 1991 when Viswanathan Anand remained the only Indian to play in the Candidates, five Indians – R. Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, Gukesh in the Candidates while R. Vaishali and Humpy in the Women’s Candidates – making the grade is a great global advertisement showcasing the rise of Indian chess.

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On Saturday, Gukesh completed the eight-player field by being second on the 2023 FIDE Circuit behind an already-qualified table topper Fabiano Caruana. The youngster was the highest-placed player in the Circuit, not otherwise qualified through the previous World Championship, World Cup, the Grand Swiss or on World rankings.

At the start of the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in Samarkand earlier this week, Gukesh (87.36 points), Anish Giri (84.31), Wesley So (83.40) and Arjun Erigaisi (81.24) had hopes of making it to the Candidates. Anish needed to be among the medalists, and Arjun had to win the rapid title. So had hopes of making the cut by being the highest-ranked non-qualifier as of January 1, 2024.

As it turned out, Anish and Arjun failed to achieve their goals, and So was overtaken by Alireza Firouzja, who won all seven rounds of the Rouen Open. This flawless performance helped Firzouja take his rating to 2764, past So’s 2757.

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An unthreatened Gukesh held his position and grabbed the lone spot on offer.

Gukesh completed the eight-player field by being second on the 2023 FIDE Circuit behind an already-qualified table topper Fabiano Caruana
| Photo Credit:
FIDE/Lennart Ootes

For Humpy, ranked second on the January 1 World rating list, the passage was far less complicated. With the top-ranked Chinese Hou Yifan showing no interest in returning to regain the title, Humpy remained the highest-ranked non-qualifier at the start of 2024.