Gukesh, Erigaisi take shot at final Candidates spots via Chennai Grand Masters Championship

With six of the eight participants for the Candidates already finalised, both Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi have the chance to qualify by winning the tournament to top the FIDE Circuit leader board.

(R to L) Arjun Erigaisi, D.Gukesh, P. Harikrishna, Levon Aronian, Alexandr Predke, Sjugirov Sanan, and Parham Maghsoodloo at the inauguration function of Chennai Grand Masters Chess Championship 2023. | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ B/The Hindu

The Chennai Grand Masters Chess Championship, which gets underway here on Friday, will provide three of its participants - D. Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi, and Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran) - the chance to improve their likelihood of qualifying for the 2024 Candidates tournament.

With six of the eight participants for the Candidates already finalised, both Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi have the chance to qualify by topping the FIDE Circuit leader board.

Presently, Anish Giri is the leader with 84.3 points. Gukesh is third with 79.5, and Arjun fourth with 71.6.

“If Gukesh manages to finish first or joint-first, he surpasses him (Anish). And if Arjun finishes sole first, not joint-first, then he tops the leaderboard. So, from this event, if they finish at the top, they have a chance to finish at the top of the (FIDE Circuit) leaderboard, and that makes it highly likely that they could get a spot in the Candidates,” said ChessBase’s Sagar Shah, one of the tournament organisers, at the opening ceremony on Thursday.

This is India’s strongest classical super chess tournament with the average rating of 2711.

“It is one of the strongest closed classical tournaments that I have played. So, I’m excited about it. Also, I didn’t see this coming. After Grand Swiss, I thought my hopes of Candidates ended. But this is like an unexpected opportunity for me. For that, a huge thanks to everyone who put this tournament together. But I’ll try not to take any Candidates pressure and just play freely,” said Erigaisi.

Maghsoodloo can qualify for the Candidates through the rating points. He can strengthen his qualifying chance by gaining as many rating points as possible from this tournament.

The tournament features eight players in all. There will be seven rounds of classical chess in the round-robin format.

In the first round, Gukesh will face Levon Aronian (U.S.), Parham Maghsoodloo will take on Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine), Sanan Sjugirov (Russia) will be up against Alexandr Predke (Serbia), and Pentala Harikrishna will fight with Arjun Erigaisi.

The total prize money, sponsored by the Government of Tamil Nadu, is ₹50 lakh.

On behalf of the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT), the Tamil Nadu minister for youth welfare and sports development Udhayanidhi Stalin presented a cheque worth ₹1.77 crore to the tournament organisers for the conduct of this event.