Arjun Erigaisi takes on Magnus Carlsen during their match at the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz at the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium at Kolkata. (Express photo by Partha Paul.)
In a few days, the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz chess tournament will be held in New York’s Wall Street. The event will not just decide the world champions in rapid and blitz format. It will also end up deciding which player gets the FIDE Circuit spot for the prestigious Candidates tournament.
The path to Candidates tournament has one spot designated to the 2024 FIDE Circuit. There are two players in the race to win the spot: India’s Arjun Erigaisi and Fabiano Caruana. The American GM leads Arjun Erigaisi by a mere six points with the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz chess tournament being the final tournament of 2024 to award Circuit points.
Caruana raced to the lead in the 2024 FIDE Circuit race after emerging victorious at the Saint Louis Masters. The win helped him get 16.39 points which helped him leapfrog over Arjun Erigaisi on the leaderboard.
Arjun Erigaisi ended second at the Qatar Masters Open 2024. With both having completed seven tournaments counted towards the 2024 FIDE Circuit final standings, Fabiano Caruana hold a six-point advantage over his main rival.
Magnus Carlsen faces Arjun Erigaisi at the Tata Steel India Rapid and Blitz chess tournament on Thursday at the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata. (Express photo by Partha Paul)
It must be noted that Arjun Erigaisi is yet to receive his visa for USA to compete at the World Rapid and Blitz tournament.
FIDE Circuit standings
The World Rapid and Blitz Championship will be held from December 26 to 31 in USA. There are 115 entries in the field for the women’s rapid event and 113 in the women’s blitz event. In the open section, there are 182 entries in rapid and 184 in blitz.
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