Anand, Vidit, Arjun, Nihal, Praggnanandhaa, Harikrishna, Gukesh, Harika and many Indians set to play at the inaugural FIDE World Rapid Team Championship 2023

by Shahid Ahmed - 26/08/2023

The inaugural edition of FIDE World Rapid Team Championship is starting today in Dusseldorf, Germany. A total of 19 Indians are going to take part, third after Germany 115 and Ukraine 22. Vishy Anand, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin, R Praggnanandhaa, Pentala Harikrishna, D Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani, Aravindh Chithambaram, Srinath Narayanan, Harika Dronavalli, Pranesh M, Aditya Mittal, Karthik Venkataraman, Nubairshah Shaikh, Priyanka Nutakki, Dinesh Rajan M, Peter Anand and Vibhor Sharma will representing their respective teams. A total of 295 players in 37 teams are slated to take part. The total prize fund is €250000. The top three prizes are €100000, 60000 and 40000 each respectively. There will be four rounds everyday from 26th to 28th August 2023. Round 1 starts today at 1:30 p.m. local time, 5 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes

A new World Team event starts today

Our very own Cofounder and CEO of ChessBase India, IM Sagar Shah is present venue. We will bring you a detailed coverage of this inaugural edition of FIDE World Rapid Team Championship.

The inaugural edition of FIDE World Rapid Team Championship will take place from 26th to 28th August 2023

FIDE World Rapid Team Championship 2023 promo | Video: FIDE

WR Chess Team might be the second seeded on paper but they have eight GMs in the team having countless accolades between them | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Team MGD1 has the maximum number of Indian players - eight | Photo: Sagar Shah

L to R: IM Sagar Shah, Frederic Friedel, Martin Friedel, Christian Hesse, Vishy Anand and Vidit Gujrathi | Photo: Sagar Shah

A couple playing chess at a park | Photo: Sagar Shah

The tournament venue is on the banks of the river Rhine | Photo: Sagar Shah

Nihal Sarin and Arjun Erigaisi meet Frederic Friedel, the cofounder of ChessBase | Photo: Sagar Shah

Vidit Gujrathi on missing the Candidates spot, minute improvements, meditation and more | Video: ChessBase India

Anand, Pragg, Gukesh, Vidit, Arjun, Nihal are all playing here in Germany | Video: ChessBase India

Team composition

Each team will consist of at least six and maximum nine players. Apart from having to include at least one female player, for the first time in a high-level team event, teams will have to include a recreational player, who has never achieved a Standard, Rapid or Blitz FIDE rating of 2000 or more. It is not mandatory for the teams to have board order as per rating. For more details, please check the tournament regulations, link provided at the end of the article.

Format

The 12-round Swiss League team event has a time control of 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment from move no.1. There is no default time. No penalty shall be imposed on a player if he/she is late for any of his/her games. Scoring is usual for a team event. Match points: Win = 2, Draw = 1 and Loss = 0.

Teams

There are 37 teams in total. Here are the six teams which contains least one Indian player.

1. Freedom (RtgAvg:2522 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Sutovsky, Emil
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games
1	GM	Rapport, Richard	2752	ROU	738590			0
2	GM	Anand, Viswanathan	2751	IND	5000017			0
3	GM	Dubov, Daniil	2723	FID	24126055			0
4	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2682	IND	5029465			0
5	GM	Sutovsky, Emil	2593	ISR	2802007			0
6	GM	Najer, Evgeniy	2579	FID	4118987			0
7	IM	Shuvalova, Polina	2358	FID	24171760		w	0
8	WGM	Rapport, Jovana	2314	ROU	937266		w	0
9		Shapiro, Alexander	1947	ISR	2845890	r		0
2. WR Chess (RtgAvg:2486 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Gustafsson, Jan
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games
1	GM	So, Wesley	2789	USA	5202213			0
2	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	2762	FID	4168119			0
3	GM	Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	2760	POL	1170546			0
4	GM	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	2724	UZB	14204118			0
5	GM	Praggnanandhaa, R	2645	IND	25059530			0
6	GM	Keymer, Vincent	2636	GER	12940690			0
7	GM	Hou, Yifan	2537	CHN	8602980		w	0
8	GM	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	2523	SUI	4128125		w	0
9		Rosenstein, Wadim	0	GER	24148148	r		0
3. Team MGD1 (RtgAvg:2453 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Narayanan, Srinath
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games
1	GM	Erigaisi, Arjun	2681	IND	35009192			0
2	GM	Nihal, Sarin	2671	IND	25092340			0
3	GM	Harikrishna, Pentala	2630	IND	5007003			0
4	GM	Sadhwani, Raunak	2564	IND	35093487			0
5	GM	Narayanan, Srinath	2475	IND	5018420			0
6	GM	Dronavalli, Harika	2459	IND	5015197		w	0
7	GM	Aditya, Mittal	2386	IND	35042025			0
8	IM	Mammadzada, Gunay	2314	AZE	13403729		w	0
9		Peter Anand, A	1901	IND	25003801	r		0

7. Kompetenzakademie Allstars (RtgAvg:2405 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Becker, Rainer
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games
1	GM	Caruana, Fabiano	2763	USA	2020009			0
2	GM	Aronian, Levon	2763	USA	13300474			0
3	GM	Gukesh, D	2629	IND	46616543			0
4	GM	Siebrecht, Sebastian	2371	GER	4609352			0
5	GM	Batsiashvili, Nino	2364	GEO	13602993		w	0
6	WGM	Tsatsalashvili, Keti	2203	GEO	13603434		w	0
7		Becker, Rainer	2128	GER	4664612			0
8		Schneider, Manfred	2022	GER	12956350	r		0

12. Six-pack (RtgAvg:2289 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Shaikh, Mohammad Nubairshah
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games
1	GM	Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr.	2553	IND	5072786			0
2	GM	Pranesh, M	2391	IND	35028600			0
3	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman	2369	IND	25006479			0
4	IM	Mohammad, Nubairshah Shaikh	2292	IND	5053196			0
5	WGM	Priyanka, Nutakki	2226	IND	25049615		w	0
6		Dinesh, Rajan M	1903	IND	35060600	r		0

16. Ukrainian Amators (RtgAvg:2190 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0) Captain: Maly, Alexey
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	Gr	sex	Games
1	GM	Baklan, Vladimir	2625	UKR	14102196			0
2	IM	Zavgorodniy, Sergiy	2396	UKR	14110148			0
3	IM	Grinev, Valeriy	2346	UKR	14117517			0
4	IM	Gaponenko, Inna	2292	UKR	14101181		w	0
5	IM	Maly, Alexey	2291	UKR	14103184			0
6		Bagiryan, Vigen	2075	UKR	14124963			0
7	WFM	Grineva, Marianna	1987	UKR	14102013		w	0
8		Breest, Axel	1972	GER	24682349			0
9		Vibhor, Sharma	1722	IND	5099366	r		0

Details

Schedule

Venue

The venue for the event will be Rheinterrasse, Düsseldorf by Stockheim

Prize

The total prize fund is €250000. There are six prizes in total - top five and one rating category. The top three prizes are: €100000, 60000 and 40000 each respectively. Best U2400 will earn €12500.

Team list

No.	Team	RtgAvg	Captain
1	Freedom	2522	Sutovsky, Emil
2	WR Chess	2486	Gustafsson, Jan
3	Team MGD1	2453	Narayanan, Srinath
4	ASV AlphaEchecs Linz	2452	Bacrot, Etienne
5	Armenia	2421	Ter-Sahakayan, Samvel
6	Ashdod Elit Chess Club	2407	Slav, Moshe
7	Kompetenzakademie Allstars	2405	Becker, Rainer
8	Columbus Energy KingsOfChess Kraków	2347	Pakleza, Zbigniew
9	Chessbrah OFM	2344	Hansen, Eric
10	Germany and Friends	2343	Donchenko, Alexander

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations

Related news:

	WR Chess clinches FIDE World Rapid Team 2023 with a round to spare, Freedom second and MGD1 third @ 29/08/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	FIDE World Rapid Team 2023 R5-8: WR Chess increases their sole lead, Praggnanandhaa wins four in-a-row @ 28/08/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	FIDE World Rapid Team 2023 R1-4: Aravindh and Nihal shine @ 27/08/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)