India No. 1 among Carlsen's top-five toughest opponents for World Rapid Championship

Reigning World Rapid & Blitz champion Magnus Carlsen has revealed his top-five toughest opponents for the upcoming edition set to be held on Wall Street in New York starting December 26.

Norwegian Super GM Carlsen has listed India's No. 1 Arjun Erigaisi among his toughest opponents in the Rapid format that will be played between December 26 and 29. "... I think Arjun (makes the list) with his style," said World No. 1 Carlsen on 'take take take', an app he is promoting. Erigaisi famously defeated Carlsen in 20 moves in a game at the Tata Steel Chess India Blitz in November.

D Gukesh, the freshy crowned World Chess Champion (classical) is not competing in the World Rapid & Blitz Championship. Arjun and R Praggnanandhaa are the best ranked Indians in the mega event.

Carlsen seemed to have no doubts about his top two picks, who are American Hikaru Nakamura and Iranian-French GM Alireza Firouzja. He named American Fabiana Caruana ahead of Arjun and listed Uzbek GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov as the fifth name on the list.

Carlsen has five Rapid world titles, in addition to five world titles in the Classical format and seven in Blitz. He starts the Rapid event as the first seed, while Arjun has a starting rank of 16. The players are ranked based on their Elo points.

In the Rapid format, the time control is 15 minutes per player for the whole game with an increment of 10 seconds per move. There are 13 rounds in the open section and 11 in the women's section. The Blitz event, where the time control is lesser (3 minutes plus 2-sec increment) will be played on December 30 and 31.