New Delhi will host the FIDE World Cup later this year, two All India Chess Federation (AICF) office-bearers have confirmed to The Indian Express. The October 31-November 27 event is likely to be held either at Bharat Mandapam or Yashobhoomi.
The AICF had so far not confirmed a host city for the World Cup. The World Cup will be the biggest event of the year for many of India’s top chess stars like Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi, since it offers the top three finishers a spot at the prestigious Candidates tournament. The Candidates is the final step to select the challenger to Gukesh at the next World Chess Championship in 2026. At the last World Cup in 2023, Praggnanandhaa had reached the final to qualify for the 2024 Candidates. He had defeated the likes of Erigaisi, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana before running into Magnus Carlsen in the final and losing that game.
An AICF official also said that India will make a bid to host the 2026 World Championship, where Gukesh will defend his world championship crown against a yet-to-be-determined challenger.
“We had proposed to the government that the World Cup be hosted at Delhi and we have received an NOC. So it will most probably be hosted by Delhi. Bharat Mandapam and Yashobhoomi are the prime candidates to host the event,” an AICF official said. “The tender for the World Chess Championship for 2026 is not yet opened. But we will make a strong bid for that and try to get that event to India as well.”
Two Indian cities, New Delhi and Chennai, were in a three-city race for the World Chess Championship in 2024, where Gukesh defeated Ding Liren to become the 18th world champion in the sport. Eventually Singapore edged out both cities.
AICF pitched Yashobhoomi as the venue for the 2024 World Chess Championship as well. Meanwhile, Bharat Mandapam hosted the G20 Leaders Summit in 2023.
With 206 players competing in the event, winning the FIDE World Cup is so challenging that even Carlsen won it for the first time in 2023. The World Cup is played in a knockout format over eight rounds. The top 50 seeded players enter the action from the second round onwards. Each one-on-one match at the FIDE World Cup is played as a set of two classical games, with colours exchanged between game 1 and 2. If the two games cannot decide a winner, there are tiebreaks.
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Besides the FIDE World Cup, India will also host a Women’s Grand Prix event in Pune.
