Indian grandmaster Vidit Gujrati became the winner of the Grand Swiss tournament

The representation of Russia at the Candidate Tournament, which will determine the opponent of the holder of the title of world chess champion Ding Liren in the next match for this title, will be minimal. Andrei Esipenko missed a great chance to join Ian Nepomniachtchi at the Grand Swiss tournament on the Isle of Man, who was ruined by a misfire in the final round. As a result, the competition resulted in another success for the Indian school. Their winner was Vidit Gujrati, along with whom American Hikaru Nakamura, who took second place, earned a ticket to the Candidate Tournament.

A big sports drama happened to Andrey Esipenko, a 21-year-old Russian grandmaster, on the Isle of Man. The most valuable prizes at stake in the Swiss system competition that took place there were two tickets to the Candidate Tournament. In it, next year in Toronto, eight grandmasters will determine the opponent of the Chinese Ding Liren, who won the main title in chess in the spring, in the next championship match. So, Andrei Esipenko played simply magically in Grand Swiss. Not included in the top 30 seeds, he convincingly and brilliantly dealt with opponents who were quite high in the rankings; he defeated the young German prodigy Vincent Kaymer using an amazing and risky opening novelty.

Esipenko approached the final, 11th round as a leader. He had the same number of points as Indian Vidit Gujrati and American Hikaru Nakamura, but the Russian was higher in additional indicators. That is, it was not easy to miss the ticket. Esipenko missed it by not finding the right solutions in his game with the famous Dutchman Anish Giri and losing to him. The Russian was half a point behind Nakamura, who calmly beat the Indian Arjun Erigaisi, and a point behind the tournament champion thanks to a win over Alexander Predke, who had recently played for Russia, but changed his sports citizenship to Serbian, Vidit Gujrati, whose success continued already quite a stable trend.

It lies in the growth of the power of the Indian school. In recent years, she has already achieved many breakthroughs. True, most of them are associated with the names of young, teenage Indian talents – such as Dommaraju Gukesh, who is now close to the top ten of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) classification, or Rameshbabu Pragnanandha, who has already received a ticket to the Candidates Tournament thanks to his participation in August in the final of the Baku World Cup. 29-year-old Vidit Gujrati has not been talked about as one of the frontmen of this school until now. But on the Isle of Man, I must say, he performed really impressively.

What makes Gujrati’s rise especially valuable is the fact that he began the tournament with a defeat to the low-ranked Dutchman Erwin L’Ami, after which it seemed that he could safely be forgotten as a candidate for a spot. The Swiss system usually does not forgive failures in confrontations with those inferior to you in the class. But the case of Vidit Gujrati turned out to be special. Of the next ten games, he managed to win seven! And this despite the fact that, for example, the same Ancestor was in great shape.

And the thesis about the Indian phenomenon was reinforced by the outcome of the women’s Grand Swiss. In it, the gold went to Rameshbabu Pragnanandha’s sister Vaishali, although she, like Gujrati, was not included in the list of undisputed favorites.

After the Grand Swiss, the composition of the Candidates’ Tournament in Toronto is three-quarters determined. Before him, four vouchers were distributed. Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi received it automatically – as a loser in the championship match against Ding Liren. Three more names became known after the World Cup in Baku. Actually, it was won by the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen. But, having voluntarily given up the championship title last year, which he had held for ten years, he has since not regained interest in hunting for it and refused a trip to Toronto. So slots in the Candidates’ Tournament went to the young Indian Rameshbabu Pragnanandha, who lost to him in the Baku final, as well as to the semi-finalists – the American Fabiano Caruana and the unexpectedly successful Azerbaijani Nijat Abasov.

Now, after the disappointing failure of Andrei Esipenko, it is obvious that, except for Ian Nepomniachtchi, none of the Russians will play in Toronto. The remaining tickets will be allocated to the strongest in the so-called FIDE Circuit rating, that is, based on the sum of the results shown at major competitions this year, recognized by the International Chess Federation as relevant, as well as the usual FIDE rating for January. Russian grandmasters have no prospects in either category.

Alexey Dospehov