D Gukesh, Koneru Humpy to lead Indian challenge at chess World Cup

A bunch of Indian players including the talented young Grandmasters D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa will be in action at the Chess World Cup to be held here from July 30 to August 24Up for grabs at the tournament featuring both men and women would be qualification for the 2024 Candidates tournaments held to decide the challenger for the World Chess ChampionshipGukesh and Praggnanandhaa both aged 17 would enter the tournament in the second round having been handed byes in the first roundGukesh would begin his campaign against the winner of the match between Cheng Bobby and Iskandrov Mistradin and could run into compatriot S L Narayanan in the third round if the latter manages to come through two matchesPraggnanandhaa would take on the winner of the contest between Santiago Yago De Moura and Maxime Lagarde in round twoThe fastimproving Arjun Erigaisi Vidit Santosh Gujrathi Nihal Sarin B Adhiban Abhimanyu Puranik and Harsha Bharatakoti are among other Indians in the frayIn the womens tournament the Indian challenge would be spearheaded by the experienced Koneru Humpy and D Harika who will enter the event in round two after receiving byes in the first roundR Vaishali sister of Praggnanandhaa Mary Ann Gomes P V Nandhidhaa and Divya Deshmukh will also be part of the womens drawThe 2023 World Cup would see the top three instead of the top two from each section qualifying for the forthcoming Candidates tournament which will take place next April in Toronto CanadaWorld No 1 and topseed Magnus Carlsen would be eyeing a first ever triumph in the World CupCurrent world champion Ding Liren and world No 6 Alireza Firouzja would not be seen in action in the tournamentThe top names participating apart from Carlsen include Ian Nepomniachtchi Fabiano Caruana Hikaru Nakamura Anish Giri Wesley So and Maxime VachierLagrave as well as the local favourites Azerbaijans heavyweights and the top world players the 2019 World Cup winner Teimour Radjabov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov as well the defending champion JanKrzysztof Duda of PolandIn the womens section all eyes will be on Ju Wenjun the reigning world champion and Aleksandra Goryachkina The challenge is likely to come from former womens world champions Alexandra Kosteniuk who won the inaugural Womens World Cup in 2021 Tan Zhongyi Mariya Muzychuk and Anna Ushenina as well as top players such as Koneru Kateryna Lagno and Anna MuzychukAlso Read International Chess Day 2023 When Magnus Carlsen claimed India is on track to become a leading chess nationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever