FIDE Grand Swiss Chess: Divya Deshmukh needs special power to make a mark

What’s common between Fabiano Caruana and Divya Deshmukh? Both have qualified for the respective World Championship Candidates tournaments and hence not playing the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament in their respective sections.

The tournament, which starts in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from Thursday offers two of the eight Candidates spots each.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!World No. 3 Caruana of USA (Elo 2789), has already clinched the Candidates spot by topping the points tally allocated to a series of tournaments in 2024 and Divya took the spot for the Women’s candidates by winning the Women’s World Cup.While 19-year-old Divya (Elo 2478) has opted to play in the Open (other) section — thanks to the organiser’s wild card — the option of changing section is not available for 33-year-old Caruana.

Divya, world No. 761, is among the bottom-two rated players in an unprotected field via gender. She has to punch way above her weight to land a lasting impression.Divya not lone woman entryDivya is not the only woman entry in the Open section. Even Aleksandra Goryachkina is playing under the FIDE flag. Like Divya, the Russian has already sealed her place in the women’s Candidates. While Divya clinched it through the Women’s World Cup, women’s world No.

8 Goryachkina made the cut via the FIDE women’s grand prix.Top-3 Indians & Gukesh factorIn tune with India’s world domination, the top-three seeds for the tournament are ‘Anand’s children’ — world No. 4 R Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi Arjun and D Gukesh in that order. Of course, Gukesh is allowed to play this tournament (which offers the total prize fund of $625,000) despite having no Candidates spot at stake being the reigning world champion.

Thankfully, this tournament is not the only qualifying route for the Candidates.

Still, Gukesh can spoil someone’s party, as he has no spot to lose while the others will have.Vidit and VaishaliVidit Gujrathi and R Vaishali had won the last FIDE Grand Swiss when it was held in Isle of Man at the fag end of 2023. However, going by their recent form, it could be difficult to expect an encore from Vidit and Vaishali this time.Missing playersTop-five from the women’s world rankings including K Humpy and top-three from the Open section — Magnus Carlsen, HIkaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana — are not playing. While the top-ranked Carlsen and Hou Yifan have withdrawn from the respective World Championship cycles, the other missing elite players have either clinched the Candidates spot or can make it through other paths.