Gukesh's Hunger and Deshmukh's Ambition: Indian Chess Stars Headline FIDE Grand Swiss 2025

NEW DELHI: When the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 begins on Thursday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, all eyes will be on two Indians who have already rewritten the chess script in their own way, reigning world champion D Gukesh and Women’s World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh.For Gukesh, 19, it is a surprising decision to take the field in a tournament where the top two-qualify for the Candidates, the event that decides his next challenger.Being the world champion, he cannot play in the Candidates. His choice to participate is telling and the only way to keep up the momentum and brush off critics who branded him “not a worthy world champion."And if all goes according to plan, Gukesh will also take part in the upcoming FIDE World Cup in Goa, where the top three finishers earn a place in the 2026 Candidates. There also, for the world champion, the only prize that matters is the title itself.If Gukesh’s participation speaks of hunger, Divya’s speaks of ambition.The 19-year-old from Nagpur, who stunned the world by winning the Women’s World Cup, already had the luxury of skipping the event. She is qualified for the Women’s Candidates, where the challenger to the women’s world champion will be decided.Instead, she opted for the Open section to test her mettle against the strongest men and women in the scene.“At this age, especially, she will of course be very ambitious and focus on reaching 2700, which is a dream for any player. She is close to 2500 now, so it makes complete sense to compete in a stronger event. She will be playing more GMs, and she can test her preparation and how determined she is to give a strong comeback,” Shyam Sundar M, a coach who has worked with the Indian female team several times in the last few years, told TimesofIndia.com after Divya confirmed her participation in the Open section of Grand Swiss 2025.Her guide during the Women’s World Cup, Abhimanyu Puranik, will also take the field in Samarkan. However, he had a different route to preparation.“The way I am approaching this tournament, I had a month-long vacation in Disneyland,” Puranik, who finished third recently in the Challengers section of Chennai Grand Masters 2025, laughed during an exclusive chat. “I don’t know if you have watched one of those X-Men movies. There is a saying like for proper focus, you need to find that perfect mental state between rage and serenity. You have to be focused and need that instinct to fight hard, and that’s what I want to achieve.”Representing the tricolour in Uzbekistan, Murali Karthikeyan too was candid: “Mainly, I won’t be focusing too much about the title, but would like to go for the Candidates spot, let’s see how it goes. I want to take it one game at a time. I don’t want to play for win in every round. And that is when things get backfired. Like in Chennai Grand Masters, I lost points due to that. But let’s see how it goes.”For 19-year-old Leon Mendonca, Grand Swiss will be about evaluating his progress.“My first half of 2025 was not at all good, but the last few tournaments, they have gone pretty decently. And I take that as a sign that whatever I am doing (to eliminate the lapses in my game) has some effect and is kind of working for me,” he told TimesofIndia.com.India’s top-ranked Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa remains one of the favourites to secure his 2026 Candidates berth, while Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, Nihal Sarin and Pranav V add firepower to India’s record 15-player open section squad.15 Indian players in Open sectionIn the women’s section, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, and Vantika Agrawal will spearhead the charge.3 indian players in women’s sectionWith USD 625,000 in the open and USD 230,000 in the women’s prize pool, and two Candidates spots at stake in each, the Grand Swiss promises high drama.FORMATS:Open11-round swissTime control: 100+30, with 50 minutes added after move 40 and 15 minutes added after move 60Points: 1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw, and 0 for a lossWomen11-round swissTime control: 90+30, with 30 minutes added after move 40Points: 1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw, and 0 for a lossFor India, though, it is already historic as the reigning world champion, the Women’s World Cup winner, and a golden generation ready to shine on chess’s grandest stage.