Panaji (Goa) [India], October 30 (ANI): A strong Indian contingent, led by World Champion Grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju, and the entire Olympiad-winning squad will once again look to assert the country's supremacy on the world stage as they compete for the coveted FIDE World Cup 2025 crown here starting from Saturday, as per a release from FIDE.

The FIDE World Cup, one of the most prestigious global chess events, is being held in India after a gap of 23 years. Over the past two decades, Indian chess players have already made a mark on the world stage, with the country now boasting more than 85 Grandmasters - nearly eight times more than it did when the World Cup was last held in India.

In this edition, GM Gukesh Dommaraju, GM Arjun Erigaisi and GM R Praggnanandhaa have been given the top three seedings, while every 10th chess player who has qualified for this 206-strong field will be an Indian. Dutch GM Anish Giri will be the highest-ranked foreign player at four.

Two-time former champion Levon Aronian of the USA will be the only past winner in action in Goa and has been seeded 15th in the competition. Meanwhile, reigning champion GM Magnus Carlsen won't be defending his title, while 2021 winner GM Jan-Krzystof Duda of Poland has opted out.

The FIDE World Cup 2025, which carries a prize purse of $2,000,000, will follow a single-elimination knockout format, with each round consisting of two classical games, followed by a tiebreaker if required. The tie-breaker will consist of two Rapid Games, while the single-bidding Armageddon will be employed if no result is achieved at the end of the Rapid Games.

The event also offers three spots for the Candidates 2026, which will decide Gukesh's opponent for the next World Championship cycle.

Among the other participants, GM Anish Giri and GM Matthias Bluebaum of Germany have already qualified for the Candidates event through the FIDE Swiss Tour. If either of them or Gukesh finishes in the top three, the Candidates spot will be awarded to the next player in the standings.

The legendary Viswanathan Anand won the first two editions of the World Cup played in Shenyang, China and Hyderabad, India. These two editions followed a round-robin format, with a knock-out stage.

However, since 2005, the World Cup has employed a single-round elimination system, with the total number of players increasing to 206 since 2021. The top 50 ranked players receive a bye in the first round.

Third seed Praggananandhaa had reached the summit clash in the last edition in 2023 and will look to go one step further on home turf. He is likely to open his campaign against 126th-ranked Jan Subelj of Slovakia in the second round, with compatriot Raunak Sadhwani to be a potential third-round opponent.

Gukesh's second round opponent is likely to be Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan, while Arjun may face Krikor Mekhitarian of Brazil at the same stage.

Apart from this trio, India's hopes will rely on Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna, Aravindh Chithambaram, Nihal Sarin, Karthikeyan Murali, among others, and all of them will be in action only in the second round.

FIDE Women's World Cup champion Divya Deshmukh of India will be the only woman in the field after she received a wild card entry. The Nagpur-born player will open her campaign against Greek GM Stamatis Kourkoulos Arditis, and if she clears this hurdle, compatriot Nihal Sarin awaits her in the next round.

Argentinian prodigy Faustino Oro is the youngest player in the competition. The wild card entrant, International Master, turned 12 only two weeks before the start of the competition and will face GM Ante Brkic of Croatia in the opening round. Oro, who already has earned one Grandmaster Norm, can fast-track his journey to becoming a GM if he can reach the Round of 16.

There are a total of 30 teenagers in the competition, while Georgia-born GM Igor Efimov will be the oldest participant at the age of 65. Now representing Monaco, Efimov qualified for the World Cup by winning the 2024 Small Nations Open Championships and is set to take on Turkish GM Ediz Gurel, who is 49 years younger than him.

Every player losing in the first round will earn $3500, while the winner will take home a prize purse of $120,000. (ANI)