Chennai Open Chess begins on Monday
PTI, 24 January 2010, 09:19pm IST
CHENNAI: Grandmaster Ghaem Ehsan Maghami of Iran, top seed with an ELO of 2589, will start as favourite for the title in the Chennai Open 2010 International Grand Chess Masters Tournament beginning on Monday.
Maghami, fresh from his triumph in the recently concluded 8th Parsvnath International Grandmasters Tournament in Delhi, has replaced Russian GM Maxin Turov (2584) as top seed on better ELO rating.
But Maghami will face stiff challenge from second seeded Turov, a joint winner at the Parasvnath International event with him, and third seed GM Dmitry Krayakvin also of Russia.
The Indian challenge in the event is headed by Grandmasters Arunprasad and Sundararajan Kidambi. GM Arunprasad, who played a stellar role in India’s bronze medal winning performance at the World Team Championship recently, missed out the title race in Delhi as he was handicapped by his absence in the first two rounds. He will be raring to have a go at the title this time around.
The prestigious event has attracted 390 entries from 14 nations in Asia and Europe, including 19 Grandmasters, 27 International Masters, three Woman Grandmasters and three Woman International Masters.
The tournament provides a very good opportunity for Indian players to gain GM and IM norms from this event.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
What are the prize funds?
The tournament will be played on a 11-round Swiss basis carrying a total prize money of Rs 10,14,500. The winner will earn a purse of Rs 200,000. A minimum of top 25 board games will be webcast live on the internet. The games can be viewed on http://www.indianchessfed.org
Time-table
Round Date Time IST.
1 2010/01/25 09.30
2 2010/01/26 09.30
3 2010/01/26 16.00
4 2010/01/27 09.30
5 2010/01/28 09.30
6 2010/01/29 09.30
7 2010/01/30 09.30
8 2010/01/31 09.30
9 2010/02/01 09.30
10 2010/02/02 09.30
11 2010/02/03 09.30
Daily Results,Rankings,Pairings etc can be followed up from the following website,
http://chess-results.com/tnr29709.aspx?art=2&rd=1&lan=1&m=-1&wi=1000