Chess, Candidates 2024: GM Abhijit Kunte – ‘If you get a good start, the pressure will be on others’

At the stroke of the midnight hour on Thursday when India sleeps, five chess Grandmasters from the country will compete in their biggest assignment of their careers so far, when they play at the 2024 Candidates in Toronto, Canada.

While Koneru Humpy has handled the Candidates pressure before, having played in the previous edition, the remaining four – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Gukesh Dommaraju, Vidit Gujrathi, and Vaishali Rameshbabu – will make their debut in the prestigious tournament.

The Candidates is a gruelling competition, with the winner getting a spot at the World Championship match to go alongside a prize money of 48,000 euros. It is a high stakes tournament, one that can make or break players.

There’s bound to be pressure with so much on the line but Abhijit Kunte, one of earliest Grandmasters from India, believes it will differ from player to player.

“There will not be much pressure on Pragg and Gukesh,” asserted Kunte in a conversation with Scroll.

“They will have this advantage of no pressure because both of them are very young. They know that this will not be their last chance of competing in the Candidates.”

Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh, aged 18 and 17 respectively, are the two youngest players in fray in this edition of the Candidates. The latter, in fact, is the...

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