Vidit Gujrathi has secured his place in the second leg of the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, joining renowned players Magnus Carlsen, Gukesh Dommaraju and Hikaru Nakamura. The Indian grandmaster earned his spot by winning the online Play-In stage, which was held on chess.com from 8 to 14 March.
The Play-In stage consisted of three phases. Following two open qualifiers, a nine-round Swiss tournament took place on Wednesday, determining four players who would advance directly to the final knockout stage. These players were Amin Tabatabaei, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Rauf Mamedov and Pranesh Munirethinam. They joined twelve invited players to compete in the knockout phase, held on Thursday and Friday.
Vidit delivered an impressive performance in the knockout stage, securing victories against Ding Liren, Pranesh, Tabatabaei and Richard Rapport. His success was particularly notable as he won all his matches without requiring any tiebreaker games, prevailing in each encounter after the initial two rapid games. Over the two days of competition, he achieved an overall score of 6½ out of 8, with five wins and three draws.
Despite his strong showing, Vidit later admitted that he did not feel well-prepared for the event. However, he noted that the Freestyle Chess format allowed him to "just show up and play". His participation came amidst preparations for his upcoming wedding, and he mentioned that his qualification for the Paris leg could influence his honeymoon plans, as he and his wife may now travel to the French capital.
The Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam is set to take place from 7 to 14 April, where Vidit will compete against some of the world's top players.
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