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.