FIDE World Chess Championship 2025 Comes to New Delhi
Chess has been talked about for centuries now and has immense potential to go and become one of the most followed and popular sports in the world. In the words of Bobby Fischer, ‘Chess is a war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.’
FIDE, the governing body for international chess competitions and responsible for organizing chess championships, stands for ‘International Chess Federation’ in simple translation from its original French expansion.
FIDE World Championship is the hallmark event for chess players to extract the best and recognize the budding Grand Masters and International Masters in making. The 2025 edition of the Chess World Cup is slated to be held from 31 October to 27 November, marking a milestone big-ticket chess event making a return to India.
As a biannual event, the FIDE World Championship has a new location and this year the tournament is all set to come home. The Indian capital city New Delhi will host the 2025 edition of the cup, marking the return for the first time in over two decades.
India last hosted the FIDE Chess World Cup in Hyderabad way back in 2002, where in the five-time world champion and one of the most iconic Indian players Viswanathan Anand emerged as the penultimate champion.
India had last hosted a high-profile chess competition in 2022, the Chess Olympiad in Chennai. The Chess World Cup is one of the most extravagant tournaments of the indoor sport. It is a knockout tournament with over 200 players aspiring to be in contention and clinch the coveted title.
As per the published reports, New Delhi has been elected as the host since it provides convenience and travel accessibility to players from across the cities of the world. The previous edition of the Chess World Cup held in 2023 saw India’s R. Praggnanandhaa display a stellar run of form and emerging as a runner up, after his eventual loss to reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen.
As per a report published by Hindustan Times, the plausible venues could be either the Bharat Mandapam or Yasho Bhoomi, for the Chess World Cup. Being massively large convention centers and with modern state of the art facilities, these venues can certainly attract ample media glare and showcase India’s scalability on an elevated pedestal.
With a possessed prize amount of $2 million (INR 17 crores approx.), the FIDE World Cup slated to happen in New Delhi will definitely put another Indian city on the global map for amateur and title-crowned chess players. In its previous edition, while the Baku World Cup of 2023 saw the women’s competition held in tandem with the men’s chess tournament, this time around the Women’s World Cup will be held in Batumi, Georgia from July 5-29.
My Perspective:
In my opinion, India’s win in the bid to host a top-notch event is a smart and strategic move, since quite a few players are in high rankings currently. D. Gukesh – the top-rated player from India, along with R. Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi and others have earned the international titles for their country, and this presents a huge opportunity for upcoming players to come ahead and leave their mark too.
D. Gukesh, India’s grand master is current world number 3 and reigning world chess champion defeating GM Ding Liren in the 2024 championship. Another shining star is GM Arjun Erigaisi, placed on the fifth position in the FIDE world rankings. In 2024, Arjun reached a live rating of 2802, the second Indian after GM Vishy Anand.
GM Praggnanandhaa is one of the youngest grandmasters and world championship candidates ever. With a rating of 2758 and world ranking eight, he has a shining future ahead. The popularity of the sport has seen a visible rise, not only in the number of players pursuing as a career but also the active involvement of the audience to understand the game better and build an affinity towards a sport less spoken about.
For all the chess enthusiasts out there, the FIDE Championship 2025 can be live streamed on Chess.com (Live Watch) and FIDE’s official channel on YouTube.
