For Vidit, finally, a moment to savour

Vidit Gujarathi sat in his chair bouncing, his body in constant motion as the final seemingly perfunctory moves were being played out. It's pretty much what bouncing with anticipation and delirium can look like in chess. On the 47th move, he paused, pushed his king to the hl square, stopped his clock, and shook his opponent's hand.

- Susan Ninan

At that very moment, it would have been understandable if the 29-year-old Indian burst into cartwheels.

Vidit arrived at the Isle of Man for the Fide Grand Swiss as the fifteenth seed, figured nowhere among the probable contenders, lost in the first round, and ten days later qualified for the Candidates and emerged winner in a tournament that featured three of the world's top five players. It's what Vidit, who does a fair deal of streaming, describes as "great storyline, good content".

"I can't recall the last time I won a tournament - any tournament, any format," he said after, "After losing the first round, even I wouldn't have bet on myself." He joins fellow Indian Praggnanandhaa in next year's eight-player Candidates tournament that will determine the World Championship challenger.

The first round turned out to be the only one Vidit lost. He won seven and drew three of the remaining rounds. Heading into Sunday's final round, co-leaders Hikaru Nakamura and Andrey Esipenko had superior tie-break scores to him. The Indian was considered the least likely to win among the trio. The cross-table weighed on his mind.

"I slept reasonably well but somehow woke up with the thought (on Sunday morning) that it's a must-win." Like before the start of every game, Vidit sat at the board on Sunday, head bowed, eyes closed and caught a few minutes of silence before his opponent Alexandr Predke arrived.