Vidit Gujrathi to play strongest Freestyle Chess event 4 days after wedding

India's No. 6, Vidit Gujrathi, won the online qualification event to become eligible for the second leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Paris. Vidit will play the star-studded event just four days after his wedding with Nidhi Kataia, a homoeopathic doctor. 

The Paris leg to be held from April 7 to 14 will feature three other Indian stars such as World Chess Champion D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa. 

Gukesh was the lone Indian in the opening leg at Weissenhaus in Germany, which was won by local favourite Vincent Keymer, who stunned World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen. 

Besides Norwegian superstar Carlsen,  Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Hans Niemann, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are the other participants in the Paris leg of the event. 

Vidit played a thrilling set of qualifiers to become the 12th player in the field. He defeated Hungarian Richard Rapport in the final. 

"I haven't been practising chess for the last 4 months," Vidit told the chessdotcom commentators after his win. "I get married on the 3rd of April, and now it seems the honeymoon will be in Paris," he said.

Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour is a private event founded by Carlsen and German entrepreneur, Jan Henric Buettner. There was a dispute between the organisers and World Chess body, FIDE, over the use of the term "World Championship" for the event. 

Freestyle chess also known as Chess960 or Fischer random chess, is a variant different from conventional chess, featuring as many as 960 different starting positions by jumbling the pieces on the back rank, making theoretical chess nearly impossible.