Carlsen in focus as top stars vie for honours

Exciting Tata Steel Chess India tournament with Magnus Carlsen and top Indian talents set to battle in Kolkata.

It gets dark early in Kolkata at this time of the year. As Magnus Carlsen, the planet’s best chess player by some distance steps onto the stage, the nearly full moon is clearly visible from the terrace garden of Taj Bengal on Tuesday (November 12, 2024).

There is a pleasant, gentle breeze blowing across. The calm, though, is just the prelude to the storm.

The Tata Steel Chess India tournament, which opens on Wednesday (November 13, 2024), should be anything but calm — such is the format, rapid and blitz, and the mix of players, Indian and overseas in equal measure.

It is the sixth edition of the tournament, but it has a new venue — the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium, a state-of-the-art facility built at a cost of ₹440 crore. It is only a few minutes’ walk from the previous venue, the National Library.

India’s largest library has witnessed some breakthrough moments for the country’s most exciting talents, like Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh and R. Vaishali — they have emerged as unexpected champions over the last few years. They have gone on to make India proud, the latest occasion being the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, where they helped their teams create history, emerging as the champions among men and women.

R. Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, Vidit Gujrathi and S.L. Narayanan complete the Indian line-up in the men’s section. The focus, of course, will be very much on Carlsen, who is returning to the tournament that he won in convincing fashion in 2019. The Norwegian could expect some tough fight not just from his Indian rivals, but from Wesley So, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer and Daniil Dubov as well.

The women’s tournament also promises plenty of excitement. The Indian contingent comprises Kneru Humpy, Vaishali, D. Harika, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal. Aleksandra Goryachkina, Kateryna Lagno, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Nana Dzagnidze and Valentina Gunina will provide the strong foreign flavour.