FIDE Honours Viswanathan Anand, Chess World Cup Trophy Named After Legendary Indian Chess Player

The trophy of the 2025 edition of the FIDE Chess World Cup has been renamed after the legendary Indian chess player Viswanathan Anand. The trophy will be called the Viswanathan Anand Cup as it honours the contributions that the five-time world champion has made to the sport.

The trophy was unveiled in the presence of Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, and FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich in Panjim, Goa.

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Nitin Narang Announces The Change

All India Chess Federation (AICF) President Nitin Narang made the announcement official that the trophy will be named after Anand.

"Extremely proud and delighted to announce the Viswanathan Anand Cup, the FIDE World Cup (Open) Winner’s Running Trophy, instituted in honour of the King of Chess and India’s first Grandmaster, Shri Viswanathan Anand. Majestic, magnificent and deeply symbolic in design, it features a peacock (National Bird of India) in a frozen dancing form, a vision so captivating that it rekindles the timeless charm of the game," wrote Nitin Narang on his X (formerly known as Twitter) account.

The 11th edition of the FIDE World Cup will be played till November 7, 2025. The event, which is played in the knockout format, brings all the top players from different parts of the globe under one roof. The tournament is being played at Resort Rio in North Goa.

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Here's Everything You Need To Know About FIDE World Cup 2025

The tournament features names like D. Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa R, Arjun Erigaisi, Aravindh Chithambaram, Nihal Sarin, Harikrishna Pentala, Raunak Sadhwani, Leon Luke Mendonca, Iniyan Pa, Pranav V, Raja Rithvik R, Narayanan SL, Pranesh M, Harshavardhan GB, Karthikeyan Murali, Idani Pouya, Karthik Venkataraman, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Neelash Saha, Diptayan Ghosh, Aromyak Ghosh, Himal Gusain, Lalit Babu MR, and Vidit Gujrathi.

The tournament will feature the two-game knockout format across eight rounds. A total of top 50 seeds will receive a first-round bye. As far as the players seeded 51-206 are concerned, they will face off in the opening round, which is decided on the top-half vs reversed-lower-half pairing system.