Praggnanandhaa will be oneof the Indians to watch out for in the 2024 Candidates tournament. PTI

The stage is set for the FIDE 2024 Candidates Chess Tournament that will get underway in Toronto, Canada on 3 April. The tournament will go on till 22 April, with 16 players The top eight in the open and top eight in the womens category vying for the title. The winner of each of the two categories, will get to face the reigning World Champion Chinas Ding Liren in mens and Ju Wenjin in womens.

A total of five Indians R Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi and D Gukesh in open and R Vaishali and Konery Humpy in womens have qualified for the event from the country after undergoing an exhilarating qualification process where they had to win certain tournaments.

Heres all you need to know about the 2024 Candidates tournament:

Who are the players taking part in 2024 Candidates tournament?

Open

Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE rating 2758): Qualified as runner-up of previous World Championship match

R Praggnanandhaa (FIDE rating 2747): Qualified as runner-up of 2023 Chess World Cup

Fabio Caruana (FIDE rating 2804): Finished in third place at 2023 Chess World Cup

Nijat Abasov (FIDE rating 2632): Qualified after finishing 2023 Chess World Cup in fourth place, after Magnus Carlsen declined to participate

Vidit Gujrathi (FIDE rating 2747): Qualified as winner of 2023 Grand Swiss

Hikaru Nakamura (FIDE rating 2789): Qualified as runner-up of 2023 Grand Swiss

Alireza Firouzja (FIDE rating 2760): Qualified as best as per rating on 1 January, 2024

D Gukesh (FIDE rating 2743: Qualified as winner of the 2023 FIDE Circuit

Women

Lei Tingjie (2550): Qualified as runner-up pf previous World Championship match

Kateryna Lagno (2542): Qualified as winner of 2022-23 Grand Prix

Aleksandra Goryachkina (2553): Qualified as runner-up of 2022-23 Grand Prix

Nurgyul Salimova (2426): Qualified as runner-up of 2023 Womens World Cup

Anna Muzychuk (2520): Qualified after finishing third place at 2023 Womens World Cup

R Vaishali (2481): Qualified as winner of 2023 Womens Grand Swiss

Tan Zhongyi (2521): Qualified as runner-up of 2023 Womens Grand Swiss

Koneru Humpy (2546): Qualified as best as per rating on 1 January, 2024

2024 Candidates tournament format

Both the categories for the 2024 Candidates tournament will have a double round-robin format, which means each player will take on the seven competitors twice, once with white pieces and once with black pieces. A total of 14 rounds will be played with four rest days in between.

Each player will get one point for a win, half a point for a draw and zero points for a loss. The player with the highest number of points at the end of 14 rounds is declared the champion.

As far as time control is concerned, the time control for the first 40 moves in 120 minutes followed by 30 minutes for the remainder of the game in the open category. For the womens category, its 90 minutes for the first 40 minutes, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game. There will also be a 30-second increment per move starting from move 41.

Should there be two players who are tied in first place, they will be requited to play two games of rapid round matches. Should there be more than two players who are level at the top, then single round-robin matches will be held. And if any more players are still tied in first place, then they will compete in blitz matches.

Indian players chances

At the moment, its difficult to say where the Indians will end up at the 2024 Candidates tournament. Among the current five players, only Koneru Humpy has played in the Candidates previously, but Praggnanandhaa and his sister Vaishali along with D Gukesh have risen through the ranks on merit and have played several big players before.

Vidit, aged 29, has also showcased brilliance at performing at big tournaments, but in a tournament like Candidates, where you are put through exhausting 14 rounds of chess where you need mental strength and accuracy, there will be a lot of obstacles to be faces and eventually cleared.

India schedule (All matches start at 12 am IST, 2.30 pm Toronto time)

3 April

Opening ceremony

4 April (Round 1)

Alireza Firouzja vs Praggnanandhaa

Gukesh vs Vidit Gujrathi

Vaishali vs Koneru Humpy

5 April (Round 2)

Hikaru Nakamura vs Vidit Gujrathi

Praggnanandhaa vs Gukesh

Kateryna Lagno vs Koneru Humpy

Tan Zhongyi vs Vaishali

6 April (Round 3)

Gukesh vs Ian Nepomniachtchi

Vidit Gujrathi vs Praggnanandhaa

Vaishali vs Nurgyul Salimova

Koneru Humpy vs Tan Zhongyi

7 April (Round 4)

Hikaru Nakamura vs Praggnanandhaa

Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Vidit Gujrathi

Fabiano Caruana vs Gukesh

Nurgyul Salimova vs Koneru Humpy

Aleksandra Goryachkina vs Vaishali

8 April

Rest day

9 April (Round 5)

Gukesh vs Nijat Abasov

Vidit Gujrathi vs Fabiano Caruana

Praggnanandha vs Ian Nepomniachtchi

Vaishal vs Anna Muzychuk

Koneru Humpy vs Aleksandra Goryachkina

10 April (Round 6)

Gukesh vs Hikaru Nakamura

Vidit Gujrathi vs Alireza Firouzja

Praggnanandhaa vs Nijat Abasov

Vaishali vs Kateryna Lagno

Koneru Humpy vs Lei Tingjie

11 April (Round 7)

Fabiano Caruana vs Praggnanandhaa

Nijat Abasov vs Vidit Gujrathi

Alireza Firouzja vs Gukesh

Anna Muzychuk vs Koneru Humpy

Lei Tingjie vs Vaishali

12 April

Rest day

13 April (Round 8)

Praggnanandhaa vs Alireza Firouzja

Vidit Gujrathi vs Gukesh

Koneru Humpy vs Vaishali

14 April (Round 9)

Vidit Gujrati vs Hikaru Nakamura

Gukesh vs Praggnanandhaa

Koneru Humpy vs Kateryna Lagno

Vaishali vs Tan Zhongyi

15 April (Round 10)

Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Gukesh

Praggnanandhaa vs Vidit Gujrathi

Nurgyul Salimova vs Vaishali

Tan Zhongyi vs Koneru Humpy

16 April

Rest day

17 April (Round 11)

Praggnanandhaa vs Hikaru Nakamura

Vidit Gujrathi vs Ian Nepomniachtchi

Gukesh vsFabiano Caruana

Koneru Humpy vs Nurgyul Salimova

Vaishali vs Aleksandra Goryachkina

18 April (Round 12)

Nijat Abasov vs Gukesh

See the rest here:

Candidates Chess 2024: Indian players, schedule, match timings, live streaming and more - Firstpost