Praggnanandhaa on new events popping up in chess: ‘Difficult to adjust to each format sometimes, but happy there are new opportunities’

R Praggnanandhaa, who recently secured his spot in the Candidates tournament via the FIDE Circuit route, he’s happy that the sport is now giving players so many opportunities to play and become full-time professionals.

Ahead of the third edition of GCL in Mumbai, Pragg was in Dharavi as the chief guest at the Dharavi Chess Championship on Friday. (Express Photo by Deepak Joshi)

The landscape of chess will be altered in a year’s time when the new Total Chess World Championship Tour comes into effect in 2027. The tour will end up crowning a fourth world champion—the FIDE World Combined Champion—which will be an addition to other world championships like the Classical World Champion, the World Rapid and the World Blitz Champion.

India’s R Praggnanandhaa, who recently secured his spot in the Candidates tournament via the FIDE Circuit route, says that he’s happy that the sport is now giving players so many opportunities to play and become full-time professionals.

“I am happy to see that there are new opportunities for the players to play and since we have so many players, getting more opportunities for them to play is amazing, in that way it is great to see new tournaments coming up. In terms of format, there are constant shifts which are happening. I am not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing, but as a player, I think it is sometimes difficult to adjust to each format,” he was quoted as saying by PTI. “But it is also good that we have so many tournaments around, that players can participate in and they can make a living out of playing.”

The introduction of the Total Chess World Championship Tour will mean that the chess calendar will be more packed than ever. Besides the Total Chess World Championship Tour, the sport already has two more ‘tours’: the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, whose first edition wrapped up on Friday, and the Grand Chess Tour. Besides these events, there are plenty of standalone events like Norway Chess, Tata Steel Chess, Prague Masters and FIDE-organised events like Grand Swiss and World Cup.

The Global Chess League, which will be held in India for the first time from Sunday onwards, is another event that is only in its third year.

Ahead of the third edition of GCL in Mumbai, Pragg was in Dharavi as the chief guest at the Dharavi Chess Championship on Friday. Besides making the ceremonial first move in the chess tournament for school kids from Dharavi, Pragg also took on winners of the event in a simultaneous exhibition game.