Overview
- An opening ceremony in Goa revealed the Viswanathan Anand Cup trophy, attended by India’s sports minister, Goa’s chief minister and FIDE’s president, with the silverware featuring a peacock motif.
- World Women’s Cup holder Divya Deshmukh conducted the draw of lots, assigning Black to odd numbers in Round 1, with play beginning November 1 at Resort Rio, Arpora, at 3 p.m. IST.
- The format is an eight-round knockout with two classical games per match and a tiebreak day for rapid and blitz, including a sudden-death decider if required, and a separate third-place match in the semifinals.
- Top-50 seeds receive byes into Round 2, including world champion D Gukesh, while 156 players contest Round 1, and outlets differ on the total field size, reporting either 206 or 208 entrants from about 80 countries.
- India hosts the World Cup for the first time since 2002, live coverage streams on FIDE’s YouTube channel with no Indian TV broadcast, and notable absentees include Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana.