Why Chess World Cup tests the mind and body

There is a certain level of uncertainty that comes with the Chess World Cup. Most tournaments follow a straightforward round robin format. But the World Cup, a near month-long competition with 206 players vying for the title, is one of the sport's most treacherous events.

- Shahid Judge

D Gukesh during the Grand Swiss event in Samarkand.

So much so that the great Magnus Carlsen, a five-time world champion and the world no.1 for over a decade, won the World Cup for the first time at the last edition in 2023.

And it all stems from the fact that the mega-event follows a knockout format. Getting to the final means an unseeded player will have to win seven rounds - each consisting two classical games, followed by and a series of rapid and blitz tiebreaks if it is required - to get to the final.

"This is a very long event," said GM Abhijit Kunte to HT. "There are not many knockout format tournaments in chess, and this is one of the very high stress events.

"In other events, if you make a mistake and lose a match, you can always come back because it's a round robin event. Here, you won't be able to. The margin of error is much smaller."

The benefit of the round robin events is that each player knows who the opponent will be and on what day before the tournament. But at the Chess World Cup, the latest edition of which begins in Goa next week, one can only predict who the next opponent could be.