2 Malayalis among 7 Indians qualify for FIDE Chess World Cup

Seven Indians, including two Malayali grandmasters (GM), have qualified for the FIDE Chess World Cup, which will be held in October-November this year.

Thrissur native Nihal Sarin and Thiruvananthapuram native S L Narayanan were the two grandmasters from Kerala who clinched their spots in the World Cup with their performances in the Asian Individual Chess Championship in the UAE.

Nihal was India's best in the event, clinching second place with 7 points. He defeated Iranian Bardiya Daneshwar in the final round, but the latter secured first place due to his opponents' better average ratings despite also finishing on 7 points.

GMs P Iniyan, Raja Rithvik R, M Pranesh and Murali Karthikeyan along with IM Harshvardhan G B were the other Indians who qualified to the World Cup from the Asian event. Iniyan, Rithvik, Narayanan and Pranesh finished on 6.5 points each, while Harshvardhan and Karthikeyan made it to 6 points from nine rounds.

Nihal and Narayanan were part of the previous World Cup in 2023. Nihal lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi in round four, while Narayanan was defeated by world-champion-to-be D Gukesh in the third round. Magnus Carlsen got the better of R Praggnanandhaa to win the title in the previous edition.

Kerala has produced three GMs, with G N Gopal the first, followed by 27-year-old Narayanan and 20-year-old Nihal.