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The Indian Qualifier is a 16-player knockout tournament taking place from 7-10 May 2021 on chess24. The format is the same as for the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, except that there is only one set of matches instead of two. Baskaran Adhiban tops a field of 16 Indian players who will compete for two spots in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, Gukesh and Harika Dronavalli are among the other participants in the knockout event. Three Indian players are among the 30 who have so far competed on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour - Indian no. 2 Harikrishna and no. 3 Vidit, by invitation, and Praggnanandhaa after winning the Polgar Challenge, the first event on the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour. Pragg will be back for the qualifier, for which heβs joined by Indian no. 4 Adhiban and most of the top rated Indian players and rising stars.
In Fridayβs first round thereβs a large rating gap in many of the ties, though since the lower-rated players are usually talented juniors they may well be underrated. The closest match on paper is 15-year-old Praggnanandhaa (2608) taking on 22-year-old two-time Indian Chess Champion Karthikeyan Murali (2606), while Harika Dronavalli (2515) will be hoping to put her knockout experience in Womenβs World Championships to good use against another two-time Indian Champion, 21-year-old Aravindh Chithambaram (2641). Top seed Adhiban (2660) outrates his 17-year-old first-round opponent Aronyak Ghosh by 220 points, but the international master was the surprise of the Vidit Chess Tour, beating Gupta, Harsha and Erigaisi before only losing the final in an Armageddon game against Gukesh.
####Knockout Bracket
####Participants
| Title | Name | FED | Rtg. |
|---|---|---|---|
| GM | Baskaran Adhiban | IND | 2660 |
| GM | Krishnan Sasikiran | IND | 2647 |
| GM | Panayappan Sethuraman | IND | 2644 |
| GM | Aravindh Chithambaram | IND | 2641 |
| GM | Surya Shekhar Ganguly | IND | 2625 |
| GM | Nihal Sarin | IND | 2620 |
| GM | Abhijeet Gupta | IND | 2612 |
| GM | Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa | IND | 2608 |
| GM | Murali Karthikeyan | IND | 2606 |
| GM | Dommaraju G |
https://preview.redd.it/k58p4mfu7rw61.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=9751312a380a3b73c30ace0f683fedb312f0842e
After narrowly losing out on the chance to play in the final, winning 3-0 against Nakamura in the rapid section, losing only on the armageddon format, Shakh beat US/Armenia Representative Levon Aronian in the match for 3rd place.
Congratulations Shakh!!!
This thread will be automatically updated with links to event discussion threads while the events are ongoing.
| Event | Dates |
|---|---|
| June 4 β 15 | Superbet Chess Classic |
| June 10 - 13 | Gelfand CCT Challenge |
| June 10 - July 3 | Women's Speed Chess Championship |
| June 13 - 20 | Prague Chess Festival |
| June 16 β 22 | Paris Rapid & Blitz |
| June 26 - July 4 | Champions Chess Tour Leg #7 |
For the Chess Champions Tour, the major and the minor tournaments have the same 16 player field round robin with the top 8 players advancing to knockout. So why would the major tournaments have twice the prize fund ($200K vs $100k) and tour points, while also giving the winner a spot in the final? The only difference and reason I could find is that the major tournaments might be slightly more difficult because they give one spot to the winner of the regular.
