Who will take on the reigning World Chess Champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship and challenge him for the title of World Champion? Only a few days are left for the candidates who decide this competition. The competition will be held in Toronto, Canada from the 3rd to the 22nd of April. The winner of this tournament will challenge the world champion. So a comparative review of all these players is a must for any chess lover. From this study, which player will we candidates have a greater chance of winning the tournament? A more accurate prediction can be made about this. Of course, all the players in this competition are equal to each other. However, if we do a comparative study of them, we can certainly build some arenas.
Three Indian chess players are trying their luck in the men’s category in this very important tournament in the field of chess. Grandmaster R., who recently defeated five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen twice in one calendar year and reigning world champion Ding Liren. Pragyanand, Asian runner-up, Under-14 World Champion and Under-16 World Championship runner-up and Grandmaster Vidit Gujarathi who defeated Magnus Carlsen, the player with the highest FIDE score of all time, and Grandmaster D. Gukesh is currently playing the candidate tournament. Each of these players has a characteristic. Grandmaster R Pragyanand’s specialty is creating chalis at lightning speed, while Grandmaster Vidit Gujarathi’s specialty is editing Vijaysree by adding drama to the innings. Grandmaster D Gukesh’s game is characterized by creating moves that force the opponent to think.
If we think about the types of moves that the players representing India play at the beginning, it can be seen that De Gukesh uses the Ratty opening method most often while playing from the white side and the Queen Pawn game method is the most used in his game. Grandmaster Gukesh is seen using the Sicilian and Queen Gambit Decline respectively when it comes to Black Gambit. Considering Gukesh’s success playing with the white pawns, he has most often pocketed the most pawns (c4) in front of the camels on Wazira’s side.
Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi’s tactical style is that most often from white he starts the innings with the queen gambit decline method while the second most often when playing from white, he starts his game with the queen pawn game. An analysis of his play reveals that he most often starts his move in the Sicilian manner when playing with the black pawns. In the second place, the Queen Pawn starts the inning. Playing from the White side, he has won the most Vijayshri in the innings by driving the pawn two houses in front of the wazir (d4).
Grandmaster R Pragyananda’s tactics reveal that Sicilian is his favourite opening method. A look at many of his innings shows that whether it is white pieces or black pieces, he plays the same opening a maximum number of times. In his thinking, he seems to think of a ratty opening when playing with white pawns, and a queen pawn game when playing with black pawns. When playing with white pieces, he has most often forced his opponent to accept defeat by playing B3.
India’s most recent Grandmaster R Vaishali and 2019 Women’s Rapid Chess World Champion Koneru Hampi represent India. The performance graph of both these players is soaring. Their performance shows consistency. R Vaishali has played 437 innings so far and in 149 of them, she has forced the opponent to lose. Considering Koneru Hampi the same figure comes to 693 in 1693. Considering the innings played by R Vaishali, she has drawn about 31 per cent of the innings while Koneru Hampi has forced the opponent to draw in about 36 per cent of the innings. There is no doubt that this statistic is better than other female chess players.
Considering the history of Indian chess, women’s and men’s groups are considered together, so far the maximum number of 5 chess players have played in the candidate tournament. Since the Indian chess players playing in the candidate tournament have defeated the existing world champions in other tournaments, it is certain that India has a good chance to become the world champion this time.
