Round one of the World Cup 2017 is now just a few hours away. The Indian players look pretty relaxed and in great spirits for the start of the event. Adhiban Baskaran who spoke to ChessBase India, said, "It's now time to unleash the beast mode!" What we are looking at is all of our seven Indian players qualifying to the next round. While Anand and Hari have relatively easier opponents, Vidit and Adhiban have much more work to do. Sethuraman, Deep and Karthikeyan have higher rated opponents and we are looking forward to see them pulling off some upsets!
A few hours from the start
The official hotel for the World Cup 2017: Hotel & Preference Hualing Tbilisi
The rooms are spacious and cozy
Vidit to Erwin: "Whom will you support in case Anish and I play against each other!"
The super seven Indians, all captured in one frame! The thing to note is that each and every Indian player looks extremely fit and has put in a lot of effort not just on the board, but also off it.
The opening ceremony was held at Funicular restaurant, which was around twelve kilometres away from the official hotel.
Vishy Anand is thrilled to see the view from the Funicular restaurant
In just one glance you can see the entire city of Tbilisi and beyond!
The food was excellent and there was a wide spread of different Georgian dishes
Traditional Georgian dances gave a nice feel to the evening
Harikrishna looks confident and well prepared for this gruelling event
All the Indian players have preferred single rooms apart from Sethuraman and Karthikeyan Murali who are room mates
Adhiban has made it to this event as FIDE President's wild card nomination. He was in high spirits and in an interview with ChessBase India (check below) said that he would like to unleash the beast mode!
Adhiban's team: His father and coach Elizbar Ubilava
Sethuraman with Deep Sengupta. The GM from West Bengal is playing the World Cup for the first time in his life!
Between Anish totally confused, Fabiano and Rustam having fun, what are our Indian guys thinking?!
Sethuraman practices daily meditation in order to get better at chess. Well, perhaps his today's quota was still left!
The man of the moment and the recent addition to the 2700 league Vidit Gujrathi will be looking to give his best at the event!
Vishy Anand speaks with former Women's World Champion Nona Gaprindashvili as his former trainer Elizbar Ubilava looks on
A light dinner for Vishy. His second Grzegorz Gajewski has a long night of analysis ahead and eats accordingly!
