Praggananandhaa to face France’s Firouza in opener

R Praggnanandhaa

India's best bet, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa will start his campaign against French Alireza Firouza while it will be an all-Indian affair between D Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi in the first round of the Candidates chess tournament that began here.

An all-American duel will be fought between two highest-ranked players Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. In the other contest of the day, Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan will take on the lone Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Also Read: India's teenage shuttler Anmol enters quarters

In the women's section too, the two Indians, R Vaishali and Koneru Humpy are pitted against each other and the two Russians Aleksandra Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno will also be battling out in the first round.

The two Chinese Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi are also slated to meet each other and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine will face the youngest participant Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria. While the pairings were announced a few weeks ago, the only thing that might matter is the start for each of the eight participants in the double round-robin events that will select the challenger to the next world championship match.

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