D Gukesh secures his berth in FIDE Candidates tournament; beats Anish Giri in race to qualify

D Gukesh secured his place at the FIDE Candidates tournament which will be played in Toronto, starting from April 2 to 25 next year by defeating Anish Giri in the race to book a berth.

Samarkand (Uzbekistan): D Gukesh on Saturday booked his berth, securing the final spot at the FIDE Candidates tournament, scheduled to start from April 2 to 25 next year which will be held in Toronto in Canada.

D Gukesh became the only third Indian to qualify for the tournament after Anish Giri failed to finish at the top of the standing of the FIDE World Blitz tournament at Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

It will be the first time ever that three Indians including R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi will feature in the FIDE Candidate tournament. The competition will be played in the round-robin format while the winner of the Candidates will get the chance to take on China’s Ding Liren in the next world chess championship.

D Gukesh and Anish Giri were fighting for the final spot in the Candidaates tournament as Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Nijat Abasov, Vidit, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa had already secured their qualification.

It was a must for Anish Giri to secure the spot in top 3 of the World Rapid Championship or win the World Blitz Championship to qualify for the FIDE Candidates tournament but he failed to achieve it, paving the way for the qualification of Gukesh.

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen won the World Blitz title to add to the World Rapid crown he had won on Thursday. This was Carlsen’s 7th World Blitz title and his 17th overall across the three formats.

The Women’s Candidates Tournament will also be held with the Open Candidates event, where Vaishali Rameshbabu who created history will be representing India, and will likely be joined by Koneru Humpy.

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