While talking about contenders behind Caruana in the list at the upcoming Candidates, Niemann said: "If you ask me to choose between the rest, I would say Sindarov because of his good recent results. If I had to pick a third, it would probably be Praggnanandhaa."
Since regulations require players from the same federation to meet in the early rounds, the three Indians players in the fray, Humpy Koneru, Divya Deshmukh and Vaishali R will meet each other in the first few rounds.
The 2027 edition will also see a Women's FIDE Freestyle World Championship taking place in the first weekend of 2027, ahead of the men's World Championship.
It could be the unpredictability of the starts in Chess 960, or just the fact that Carlsen needed to stamp his territory in a Freestyle title he'd never won, but chess' ultimate maverick was firmly dialled in at the FIDE event that he went on to win
Carlsen admitted that he knew the third game was over, and that defeat was inevitable, but kept fighting regardless. It turned out to be the prudent choice.
“This is a position that you don’t even want to get in your nightmares,” chess legend Judit Polgar said on the official broadcast on YouTube as Arjun’s advantage over Carlsen started becoming significant.
2022 World Fischer Random Champion, Hikaru Nakamura, was invited to compete, but he declined his invitation. But Arjun Erigaisi, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, Javokhir Sindarov, Hans Niemann and Nodirbek Abdusattorov will compete for the title
Humpy is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished female players of her generation. She made history in 2002 when, at just 15 years old, she became the first Indian woman to earn the Grandmaster title
To capture the zeitgeist of that era, there are clips of male players like Bobby Fischer dismissing the abilities of female players. “Women are terrible chess players,” Fischer smirks in a clip. Fittingly, Judit Polgar smashed Fischer’s 33-year-old record of being the youngest grandmaster in history.
At the Olympiad in Uzbekistan later this year, the Uzbek quartet of Sindarov, Abdusattorov, Nodirbek Yakubboev, and Jakhongir Vakhidov will be gunning for the Olympiad gold they lost to India in the 2024 edition
Over the course of three weeks in cold Wijk aan Zee, Arjun Erigiaisi lost 30 points, Praggnanandhaa dropped 17 while Aravindh left 16 points lesser than he had before event started. Gukesh, in contrast, lost just six rating points and had the most wins among Indians.
Talking about the Gukesh blunder, Caruana said: "Chess blindness happens in different ways at different times. It usually doesn't happen like this. I just think chess blindness can hit you at any moment, and some people are less susceptible to it than others."
The way Arjun and Pragg have lost rating points at the Wijk aan Zee event, there is a possibility that the semi-retired Viswanathan Anand might find himself as the top rated Indian player in two more days when the event ends.
Talking about the world champion, RB Ramesh said: "In the case of Gukesh, I think his main strength is his insane self-belief. He just thinks he is too good, and that helps him; he can do dubious things and still get away with them."
So far the organisers of Norway Chess have announced that Bibisara Assaubayeva and last year's winner Anna Muzychuk will be part of the six-player field. The remaining three players will be announced soon.
By the time he resigned, Erdogmus had spent plenty of time shielding his teary eyes from the rest of the world. Gukesh, meanwhile, calmly paced around the playing hall, seemingly determined to get in his 10,000 steps for the day.
This marks the third straight year that reigning World Champion Gukesh and former World Cup finalist Praggnanandhaa have been invited as full-tour participants for GCT, while Arjun has been overlooked.
“Magnus has dark-square domination. His king is super safe next to the knight here at the edge of the board (on the h6 square),” British grandmaster David Howell was saying on the Take Take Take app’s live commentary just seconds before Carlsen's blunder.
While Ian Nepomniachtchi said he considered Fabiano Caruana as the top favourite to win Candidates 2026, ranking him slightly ahead of Pragg, he also pointed out that American grandmaster "can burn out" in events.
