March 30, New Delhi – Indian Grandmasters will compete today in Round 2 of the FIDE Candidates Chess tournament in Paphos, Cyprus.
Divya Deshmukh will face R Vaishali in a match between two Indian players in the women's section. R Praggnanandhaa will compete against China's Wei Yi.
In the first round, Divya and Vaishali ended with draws, while Praggnanandhaa defeated the higher-ranked Anish Giri with the white pieces.
While all the women's games in Round 1 ended in draws, the open section also saw wins by American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana against his compatriot Hikaru Nakamura, and World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov beat Andrey Esipenko.
The FIDE Candidates tournament is a crucial event in the chess calendar as it will determine the challenger for the world title. D Gukesh is the current world champion in the open section, while Ju Wenjun of China holds the women's world title.
