Chess India
Why didn't the top players take part in the Indian National Championship in August? Huge missed opportunity for FIDE Circuit and FIDE World Cup.
The 61st National Championship (Gurugram, August 17–27, 2024) was important from the perspective of both the FIDE Circuit 2024 and the FIDE World Cup 2025 Qualification (with 7 qualification spots!).
As this reddit post attests, the knowledge that there would be 7 qualifying spots for the World Cup was known several months in advance of the championship. There's no point in blaming FIDE for this, since this is clearly an oversight from the Indian Chess scene.
Also, being a 50+ player tournament, the national championship would also count as one of the mandatory 50+ player tournaments for a player contending for a FIDE Circuit spot in the Candidates.
Here are the relevant sections of the FIDE Circuit regulations:
4.2 To be eligible for FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification, a player's final score shall consist of at least five tournaments (including at least four standard tournaments). Among these tournaments there shall be:
4.2.1 At least two standard tournaments with the participation of more than 50 players*, if his/her final score consists of six or seven tournaments.
4.2.2 At least one standard tournament with the participation of more than 50 players*, if his/her final score consists of five tournamentsHere are the circuit points the top 3 finishers earned:
Karthik Venkataraman (1st) — 5.76 Ganguly, Surya Shekhar (2nd) — 5.13 Neelash Saha (3rd) — 4.82 There are several others who earned circuit points from this tournament.
Now, the top 8 TAR (tournament average rating) of this tournament was 2562.875. If several of our top players had taken part, it would have raised the TAR significantly, and consequently the final circuit points earned. This could have given the top finishers a huge boost in their circuit points for this year.
To give an idea of how many circuit points one could earn if most of the top players took part, Fabiano Caruana earned 25 points for first place this year (TAR 2727.25) from the US Championships. This has made a huge difference to his circuit chance this year. And he also earned 22.68 last year (TAR 2726.75) from the US Championships.
It's very concerning that such things were not taken note of much earlier this year and communicated clearly to the players. It's imperative that the chess authorities in India take note of this and work on rectifying this for next year and beyond.
If there are hurdles in raising the prestige/level of the National Championship, then those hurdles must be overcome. To me, this appears as too good of an opportunity for the Indian Chess players to pass up.
As this reddit post attests, the knowledge that there would be 7 qualifying spots for the World Cup was known several months in advance of the championship. There's no point in blaming FIDE for this, since this is clearly an oversight from the Indian Chess scene.
Also, being a 50+ player tournament, the national championship would also count as one of the mandatory 50+ player tournaments for a player contending for a FIDE Circuit spot in the Candidates.
Here are the relevant sections of the FIDE Circuit regulations:
4.2 To be eligible for FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification, a player's final score shall consist of at least five tournaments (including at least four standard tournaments). Among these tournaments there shall be:
4.2.1 At least two standard tournaments with the participation of more than 50 players*, if his/her final score consists of six or seven tournaments.
4.2.2 At least one standard tournament with the participation of more than 50 players*, if his/her final score consists of five tournamentsHere are the circuit points the top 3 finishers earned:
Karthik Venkataraman (1st) — 5.76 Ganguly, Surya Shekhar (2nd) — 5.13 Neelash Saha (3rd) — 4.82 There are several others who earned circuit points from this tournament.
Now, the top 8 TAR (tournament average rating) of this tournament was 2562.875. If several of our top players had taken part, it would have raised the TAR significantly, and consequently the final circuit points earned. This could have given the top finishers a huge boost in their circuit points for this year.
To give an idea of how many circuit points one could earn if most of the top players took part, Fabiano Caruana earned 25 points for first place this year (TAR 2727.25) from the US Championships. This has made a huge difference to his circuit chance this year. And he also earned 22.68 last year (TAR 2726.75) from the US Championships.
It's very concerning that such things were not taken note of much earlier this year and communicated clearly to the players. It's imperative that the chess authorities in India take note of this and work on rectifying this for next year and beyond.
If there are hurdles in raising the prestige/level of the National Championship, then those hurdles must be overcome. To me, this appears as too good of an opportunity for the Indian Chess players to pass up.
0
© 2024 Indiareply.com. All rights reserved.
