All posts tagged: Vidit Gujrathi

Gukesh, Humpy to lead Indian teams at 2026 Chess Olympiad

Gukesh, Humpy to lead Indian teams at 2026 Chess Olympiad

Published by Webster

The reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and veteran Koneru Humpy will lead the Indian teams for the 2026 Chess Olympiad later this year. The tournament is slated to be held from 16 to 27 September, 2026 in Samarkad, Uzbekistan. Joining Gukesh in the men’s teams will be Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and Nihal Sarin. Meanwhile the women’s team will feature Divya Deshmukh, Savita Shri, Rameshbabu Vaishali, and Vantika Agarwal to accompany Humpy. 🇼🇳♟ Introducing Team India for the FIDE Chess Olympiad! India (Open): Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R, Nihal Sarin and Vidit GujrathiCaptain: Srinath Narayanan India (Women): Humpy Koneru, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Savitha Shri B
 pic.twitter.com/Um9qX7JyLf — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 23, 2026 Both the Indian teams will enter the tournament as the defending champions, having won the title in Budapest in a watershed moment for Indian chess two years ago. From the victorious men’s team, the only change is Nihal being drafted in, replacing Pentala Harikrishna. Meanwhile, the women’s team has changes with Koneru Humpy and …

Divya Deshmukh teams up with Carlsen; Sindarov, Nihal in same team for GCL | Chess News

Divya Deshmukh teams up with Carlsen; Sindarov, Nihal in same team for GCL | Chess News

Published by Webster

2 min readMumbaiJun 29, 2026 07:47 PM IST Defending champions Alpine APL Pipers have retooled their roster by adding Magnus Carlsen, Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh, Anish Giri, Vidit Gujrathi and reigning world rapid champion Volodar Murzin for the upcoming season of Global Chess League, to be held in Bengaluru from September 3 to 13. This will be Deshmukh’s first GCL while Carlsen will return after sitting out season 3. World champion Gukesh, women’s world championship contender Vaishali Rameshbabu and R Praggnanandhaa have skipped this season. Meanwhile, at the GCL Draft held in Mumbai on Monday, the FYERS American Gambits managed to put together an intimidating line-up bolstered by recent Bullet Chess Champion Nihal Sarin, world championship contender Javokhir Sindarov and three-time world blitz champion Bibisara Assaubayeva. The fourth edition of the Global Chess League will see five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand switch teams for the first time in league history, swapping his Ganges Grandmasters jersey for PBG Alaskan Knights, where he will be joined by Arjun Erigaisi. The team will also have Turkish phenom Yagiz …

Arjun Erigaisi roars back for first win as Vidit Gujrathi suffers second straight loss

Arjun Erigaisi roars back for first win as Vidit Gujrathi suffers second straight loss

Published by Webster

4 min readJun 8, 2026 11:34 PM IST The second round of the Uzchess Cup 2026 Masters offered no respite for the faint-hearted, as all five games ended decisively. For India, the day brought mixed fortunes as Arjun Erigaisi roared back after a draw in the opening round to claim his first win, toppling Nodirbek Yakubboev, while Vidit Gujrathi endured another crushing defeat, falling this time to former two-time Candidates champion Ian Nepomniachtchi. Yakubboev has strong credentials and is one of the stronger players hailing from an extremely talented player pool in Uzbekistan. He was a semifinalist at the FIDE World Cup 2025, just one win away from locking in his spot at the Candidates. He eventually finished fourth and was one of the nearly men of the event. In an English game, both Yakubboev and Arjun ventured deep into a fairly complex middle game that saw only two exchanges: a pawn and a knight trade in the first 22 moves. Both players bled more than an hour on the clock and reached an exciting …

Cold start for Indians as Vidit suffers loss, Arjun held to draw

Cold start for Indians as Vidit suffers loss, Arjun held to draw

Published by Webster

3 min readNew DelhiJun 7, 2026 11:42 PM IST A cold day awaited the Indian players in Tashkent during the opening round of the 2026 Uzchess Masters. The highest-ranked Indian, Arjun Erigaisi, was held to a draw by the considerably lower-rated Shamsiddin Vokhidov, while the other Indian in the fray, Vidit Gujrathi, suffered a heavy blow at the hands of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on Sunday. The Azerbaijani veteran Mamedyarov snatched the full point from the experienced Indian. He risked steering the game into an extremely complex middlegame, a gamble that worked perfectly in his favour. Mamedyarov induced errors from Vidit to gain an extra pawn in the rook endgame. Yet the position remained double-edged, where one misstep could render the extra pawn meaningless. Vidit fought valiantly for most of the endgame before a single lapse in judgment cost him the game. He failed to build a pawn fortress and eventually folded in 67 moves, after battling for over five hours. In the Arjun vs. Vokhidov clash, the 124-point Elo gap proved less decisive. In the Caro-Kann …

‘We are slowly being poisoned and no one cares?’: Vidit Gujrathi on New Delhi and India’s deteriorating AQI | Chess News

‘We are slowly being poisoned and no one cares?’: Vidit Gujrathi on New Delhi and India’s deteriorating AQI | Chess News

Published by Webster

Delhi and the overall country’s deteriorating Air Quality Index (AQI) has been the topic of conversation for a long time with India Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi the latest to point out the hazardous level of air pollution in India and the national capital. Sharing a screenshot of Delhi’s AQI on Saturday, which read 598 which is hazardous quality, Gujrathi posted on X, “We are slowly being poisoned and no one cares? Shouldn’t solving this be the top priority?” The pollution has affected the ongoing India Open badminton tournament at the capital as well with World No.3 Anders Antonsen pulling out of because of the ‘extreme pollution in Delhi’. “Many is (sic) curious to why I have pulled out of the India Open for the third consecutive year. Due to the extreme pollution in Delhi at the moment I don’t think it’s a place to host a badminton tournament,” Antonsen had written on an Instagram story earlier this week. We are slowly being poisoned and no one cares?Shouldn’t solving this be the top priority ? pic.twitter.com/1qyZvPFLFq — …

Vidit Gujrathi, India’s flagbearer in chess for the past decade, shifts focus to ‘vibe coding’ chess apps for elite players | Chess News

Vidit Gujrathi, India’s flagbearer in chess for the past decade, shifts focus to ‘vibe coding’ chess apps for elite players | Chess News

Published by Webster

When a 41-player contingent from India heads to Qatar next week to compete at the prestigious FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship, one player’s name will be conspicuous by its absence: Vidit Santosh Gujrathi. Currently playing in the Global Chess League for Triveni Continental Kings, Vidit says he has taken a ‘conscious decision’ to ease up on his chess. Instead, the veteran says he’s focussing on his next act in the sport, which includes pursuits like vibe coding chess websites for other professional players. Vidit says that next year, besides playing in the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz in Kolkata, his tournament calendar is bare. “This is a conscious decision I took last year that I will reduce playing chess. I did not play in all the serious events that I could have this year. Before some tournaments like the Grand Swiss, where I had confirmed my participation, I was even thinking till the last minute should I play or not? I did not feel like playing,” Vidit says. Taking a step back Vidit says …

Why Vidit Gujrathi felt at ‘home’ at FIDE World Cup in Goa | Chess News

Why Vidit Gujrathi felt at ‘home’ at FIDE World Cup in Goa | Chess News

Published by Webster

For the approximately two weeks that he was in Goa for the FIDE World Cup, trying also to qualify for the Candidates, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi looked like a man at ease. Unlike other chess tournaments, the knockout format of the World Cup is designed to keep grandmasters on the edge and in a constant state of anxiety. For Vidit, who has played chess around the world, playing in India brought a certain comfort level. The rare presence of his entire family during a high-stakes tournament had a lot to do with this feeling. “I don’t know how many more World Cups I’m going to play. So it was nice that they could watch this live from the venue,” says Vidit. After his elimination, he is now preparing for another home event, the Global Chess League, which will be held in Mumbai. Story continues below this ad Having elite tournaments in India meant other comforts for the Indian grandmaster besides having his family around him. It meant that his primary concern while travelling abroad — food— …

I expected better” – Coach Srinath Narayanan’s honest assessment of India’s display at FIDE World Cup 2025 | “I expected better

I expected better” – Coach Srinath Narayanan’s honest assessment of India’s display at FIDE World Cup 2025 | “I expected better

Published by Webster

Goa: From four quarter-finalists out of ten in the previous edition in Baku to a solitary player in the final eight out of 24 in contention here at the Rio Resort in Arpora, hosts India have had an underwhelming campaign at the 2025 FIDE World Cup so far. With veteran Pentala Harikrishna’s loss in the round 5 tiebreaks to the lesser-fancied Jose Martinez of Mexico, the second-seeded Arjun Erigaisi was left the only Indian standing in the tournament on Sunday. “I certainly expected better,” said Indian coach GM Srinath Narayanan to The Bridge on the sidelines of the event on Sunday. “Especially Gukesh going out very early was a bit of a shocker. “Praggnanandhaa obviously lost to a very capable opponent, who is part of the elite chess. But still, on a good day, you would expect Pragg to march through. These are two major upsets for India at this event,” he added. While the reigning world champion and top seed Gukesh was outdone by Germany’s Fredrick Svane in Round 3, the reigning World Cup …

FIDE World Cup: Karthik Venkataraman becomes 5th Indian to enter Round 4; heartbreak for Vidit, SL Narayanan | Chess News

FIDE World Cup: Karthik Venkataraman becomes 5th Indian to enter Round 4; heartbreak for Vidit, SL Narayanan | Chess News

Published by Webster

Karthik Venkataraman became the fifth Indian to reach the fourth round at the FIDE World Cup after surviving a nerve-wracking tiebreak battle against Bogdan-Daniel Deac on Sunday. Besides Karthik, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, Pentala Harikrishna and Pranav V will also be part of the 32 players who will return to the board after the first rest of the event on Monday. Meanwhile, it was heartbreak for Vidit Gujrathi and SL Narayanan who were eliminated from Round 3 after tiebreaks. For Vidit, the heartbreak was harsher as he had won the first rapid game on Sunday against Sam Shankland with some brilliant endgame maneuvering. But he then lost the next game to send the contest into a mini-battle with two more games, where he drew the first and then finally lost the second one to see the door on his Candidates chances shut. After his fin victory on Sunday, two-time National champion Karthik said he was in ‘total fear’ coming into the World Cup because everyone is ‘very strong’. While some of the world’s best players …