As the FIDE World Cup 2025 heads toward the business end, five Indian players will be vying for the coveted Viswanathan Anand trophy and the three Candidates spots after a day of much deserved rest.
The first three rounds of the tournament have seen world champion Gukesh D, highest ranked foreign player Anish Giri, leading Indian star Aravindh Chitambaram and many other favourites being knocked out.
Second seed Grandmaster (GM) Arjun Erigaisi is now the highest seed in fray and will be up against Hungarian veteran Peter Leko, who was once the youngest Grandmaster back in 1994.
Among the other Indians, GM R Praggnanandhaa will meet GM Daniil Dubov, GM Karthik Venkataraman takes on Le Quang Leim of Vietnam, world junior champion Pranav V will have to overcome the challenge of GM Nodribek Yakubboev, while GM P Harikrishna plays GM Nils Grandelius.
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and GM Vincent Keymer are the other contenders for the top spot and they will be up against GM Aleksey Grebnev and GM Andrey Esipenko, respectively, in the fourth round. However, only one of them would go beyond the fifth round as they are drawn to face each other then.
Two-time champion GM Levon Aronian will be up against GM Radoslav Wojtaszek in the fourth round and could be facing Arjun in the next round if both of them clear the current hurdle.
India is hosting the FIDE World Cup after 23 years, which has received overwhelming response from fans, underlining the growing popularity of the sport in the country. “The response from the fans has once again underlined the craze for chess in India and with more tickets on offer after every round, the number of fans coming in to watch the matches is only going up. The playing hall is filled to almost 80 per cent capacity even on working days and that is very heartening to see as organisers,” said All India Chess Federation President Nitin Narang.
Considering the interest in the sport, FIDE introduced 100 photo slot tickets for fans per day and those tickets have been sold out for each and every round. With these tickets, fans can click pictures of players or even selfies with players in action in the background.
Not only this, the spectator hall and fan zone area have been brimming with young aspiring chess players, parents and even other sports fans as they try to get a glimpse of the top stars and also listen in on the game analysis from experts.
The photo slot tickets cost Rs 500, other three slots where fans can move around the playing hall cost Rs 300, while the tickets for fan zone are being sold at Rs 1,000 each. Schoolchildren from Goa are allowed for free.
Also read: FIDE World Cup: Karthik wins, five Indians in Round 4
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