Indian Grandmasters Koneru, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali set to compete in Norway Chess 2024

The tournament will feature World No.1 Magnus Carlsen, World No.3 Hikaru Nakamura and Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun.

Participants of Norway Chess 2024. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Indian Grandmasters Koneru Humpy, Vaishali Rameshbabu and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu are set to compete in the 12th edition of the Norway Chess scheduled to take place from May 27 to June 7 at SR-Bank’s main building in Stavanger, Norway.

The event will feature World No.1 Magnus Carlsen (Norway), World No.3 Hikaru Nakamura (USA), current World Champion Ding Liren (China), Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun (China), Lei Tingjie (China) among others.

Norway Chess annually extend invitations to top Grandmasters from the world rating list. However, within the top 100 players globally, no women are listed. Hence the tournament has introduced world’s first-ever equal female tournament this year.

The Norway Chess Women’s Tournament, to be held in the same hall concurrently, with the same number of players as the men’s, will have same format and an equivalent prize fund.

In this edition, the brother-sister duo of Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali will make their debut in the Norway Chess and the Norway Chess Women’s Tournament respectively.

While Praggnanandhaa is only the second Indian to reach the final of the FIDE Chess World Cup, Vaishali is the third woman in India to achieve the Grandmaster title. Both are the first brother-sister duo to earn this distinction.

Notably, Praggnanandhaa was the winner of the 2022 Norway Chess International Open Tournament. He remained unbeaten throughout the nine rounds, recording 7.5 points to clinch the title.

Koneru Humpy is the current World No.2 in women’s category. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Koneru Humpy the current World No.2 in women’s category and India’s No.1 woman chess player who won the FIDE Women’s rapid chess championship in 2019 will be vying for top honours at the inaugural women’s tournament.

Here’s the list of participants at Norway Chess 2024

Men’s Category

1. Magnus Carlsen (Norway), 2830, World No. 1

2. Fabiano Caruana (USA), 2804, World No. 2

3. Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 2788, World No. 3

4. World Champion Ding Liren (China), 2776, World No. 4

5. Alireza Firouzja (France), 2765, World No. 6

6. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (India), 2748, World No. 11

Women’s Category

1. Koneru Humpy (India), 2554, World No. 2 among women

2. Lei Tingjie (China), 2550, World No. 4 among women

3. Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun (China), 2547, World No. 5 among women

4. Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), 2525, World No. 7 among women.

5. Vaishali Rameshbabu (India), 2481, World No. 14 among women.

6. Pia Cramling (Sweden), 2437, World No. 31 among women.

Format and scoring information

Format: Double Round Robin

Time control: 120 minutes with an increment of 10 seconds after move 40. In Armageddon, White gets 10 minutes, Black 7. After move 41, there is a 1-second increment.

Scoring: 3 points for a classical win, 1.5 for an Armageddon, 1 for an Armageddon loss