Top stars for chess tourney
A STAFF REPORTER
Calcutta: The 4th Calcutta Open Grandmaster Chess tournament will get underway from Tuesday at Gorky Sadan. Grandmasters Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Nigel Short (England) and Ni Hua (China) are some of the top names to be seen in action during the 10-day meet.
Announcing this at a news conference, on Friday, Kumar Shankar Bagchi, president of the Alekhine Chess Club, said that for the first time in Asia, three players with Elo ratings above 2700 are participating in an Open tournament.
“We could not find any instance of the same in world chess also. It could not just be a first in Asia, but in world too,” he said.
Altogether 124 participants, including 35 Grandmasters and 30 International Masters, will vie for the top slot.
The total prize money is $20,000 with the winner taking home $6,000. The runner-up will get $ 4,000 and third placed $ 2,500.
The tournament is organised by Alekhine Chess Club and co-sponsored by Peerless Smart Financial Solutions and School of Management Education and Research.
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com
Strongest ever Open in Asia
KOLKATA: Entering its fourth year, the Kolkata Open Grandmaster chess tournament, to be played at the Gorky Sadan from September 1 to 10, will be the strongest ever Open in the continent.
An array of 35 GMs, 30 International Masters, two Women GMs, three Women IMs and 12 FMs in a total of 124 players from 18 countries have made this year’s edition a special one indeed.
The strongest ever tag comes because of the number of participating GMs and also by the average rating of the participants (around 2250).
Speaking on the occasion, Kumar Sankar Bagchi, the president of the Alekhine Chess Club, the organiser of the 10-round Swiss league tournament, proudly said that for the first time in Asia three GMs with a rating of about 2700 have confirmed for an Open tournament.
“Even the strongest Open in the world, the Aeroflot Open, had only one player above 2700 rating. We could not find any instance of three players above 2700 Elo rating in an Open tournament (classical time control),” he said.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan with a rating of 2721 will be top seed. Nigel Short of England (2706) and Ni Hua of China (2701) are the other two prominent seeds of the tournament.
The highest placed Indian was GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (2639) at ninth place. There are 11 Indians in the top 35.
The tournament offers a prize fund of Rs. 10 lakh with the winner set to gain Rs. 3 lakh and the runner-up Rs. 2 lakh.
Participants have come from Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, England, France, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Slovakia, Sweden, Russia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and host India.