Play from home: Chess set for groundbreaking Nations Cup

Jupinderjit Singh

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 30

Fans of chess have a bonanza of matches coming their way, even as the world of sports remains desolate due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

India will be part of the first-ever online tournament of its kind, the FIDE Chess.com Nations Cup, which also features China, Russia, USA, Europe and the Rest of the World. The tournament will be held on May 3-10 and will be a nostalgic reminder of the battle between the USSR and the Rest of the World, held 50 years ago.

Former world champions Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, rising youngster Alireza Firouzja and blitz star Hikaru Nakamura would feature in the tournament. Reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen has opted out, saying he had played too many online tournaments. The players would be playing from home, with additional cameras installed in the room to prevent any form of cheating.

The time control for the $180,000 tournament would be 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment per move.

Each team, having at least one female player, will play other teams two times. The top two teams after 10 rounds will qualify for a Superfinal.

China are the favourite with the highest average Rapid ELO rating of 2718, followed by Europe (2687), Russia (2662), USA (2654), India (2611) and Rest of the World (2598).

Teams

China: Ding Liren, Wang Hao, Wei Yi, Hou Yifan, Yu Yangyi, Ju Wenjun and Ye Jiangchuan (Capt)

Europe: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Anna Muzychuk , Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Nana Dzagnidze and Garry Kasparov (Capt)

Russia: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vladislav Artemiev, Sergey Karjakin, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Dmitry Andreikin, Olga Girya, Alexander Motylev (Capt)

USA: Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Irina Krush, Leinier Dominguez, Anna Zatonskih and John Donaldson (Capt)

India: Viswanathan Anand, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, Humpy Koneru, Adhiban Baskaran, Harika Dronavalli and Vladimir Kramnik (Capt)

Rest of The World: Teimour Radjabov, Alireza Firouzja, Bassem Amin, Mariya Muzychuk Jorge Cori, Dinara Saduakassova and Arkady Dvorkovich (Capt)