Vidit Gujrathi talks about the self-doubts that nagged him, what winning the Grand Swiss means to him and forging a kinship with players ‘his age’
About a month back, around the Asian Games, Vidit Gujrathi decided to take stock of his career. In particular, he was trying to remember when he had last won a tournament. His mind stopped at a few junctions as he journeyed back in time, but those turned out to be either one-off games — like his win over Peter Svidler at the Maharashtra Challenge Match 2023 — or second-placed finishes. Finally, he found it: his title at the Biel Chess Festival, which had come four years ago in 2019.
At the recently-concluded FIDE Grand Swiss tournament — one of the toughest open tournaments in the world — Vidit ended that streak with a stunning comeback. He started off as the 15th seed and shrugged off a defeat in the opening round to claim the title and earned a spot at the prestigious eight-man Candidates tournament, which will be held in April 2024 to anoint a challenger for World Champion Ding Liren.
“Winning the title means a lot more than sealing a Candidates spot. It has been a while since I had won an event of such stature. In fact, not even such a stature! Won any tournament! There were decent performances here and there, but no titles. So this win was reassuring, I got a lot of confidence from it, because I was getting quite discouraged.
