Rested Praggnanandhaa, motivated Arjun and world champion Gukesh the key to India's chances

Panjim (Goa), Oct 31 (PTI) Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa will hope for an encore as he takes on a strong field, minus the top-three ranked players in the world, in the FIDE World Cup that gets underway here on Saturday.

With Norway's Magnus Carlsen, and the American duo of Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana not competing, world champion D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi are the other two big names who will try and make a mark in the prestigious tournament, which has a USD two million prize fund.

More importantly, the tournament has three coveted qualification spots for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament - the gateway to the World Championship match later next year.

As many as 206 top chess exponents from 80 countries will be in Goa for the next four weeks playing the eight-round, single-elimination knockout event, where each match consists of two classical games played under standard time controls.

If the score is tied after the classical games, the players will return on the third day for a series of rapid and blitz tie-breaks to decide who advances.

Among the three top Indians, the stakes are the lowest for Gukesh as he is the world champion and doesn't need to go through the Candidates cycle to qualify for the World Championship sometime later next year.

While Praggnanandhaa is almost assured of a place in the next Candidates tournament, Erigaisi is on an elusive hunt for a seat in the biggest tournament early next year that will determine who gets to challenge Gukesh in the next World Championship match.

With three seats at stake for the Candidates tournament, there are some serious chances for the experienced Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna as well to make the cut.

Besides, young Nihal Sarin and Aravindh Chithambaram will also be strong contenders in the event that is seeing a huge Indian participation of 24 players for the first time.

The top-50 ranked players have been given direct entry into the second round, while the remaining 156 will fight it out from the first round itself.

With 78 players qualifying for the second round out of 156, the top-50 will join them to make it a 128-player pool from the second round.

Each match will consist of two classical games played under standard time controls and in the event of a stalemate, tie-break games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

With the Indian players enjoying a great run of late, including winning the Olympiad in both Open and Women's section, Gukesh clinching the World Championship title and Divya Deshmukh annexing the Women's World Cup, it will a perfect outing for homebred players to showcase their skills.

However, there is a huge talent pool coming from outside India as well. One of the key players would be Dutchman Anish Giri, who has made it to the Candidates tournament by winning the last Grand Swiss.

Vincent Keymer of Germany has found his form just ahead of the World Cup while Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan is another exponent to keep an eye on given his impressive track record, especially in the faster version of the game. PTI Cor AM AM AM