International Grandmasters Chess Tournament gets underway in Kolkata

Kolkata   :  A total of 207 players from 13 countries will feature in the International Grandmasters Chess Tournament, which kicked-off at the Newtown School here on Monday.

Legendary English Grandmaster and former World Championship challenger Nigel Short, who will be playing as the top seed, was present during the inauguration of the tournament.

Conducted by the Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and AllSport Foundation, the Rs.15 lakh prize money meet will witness 27 Grandmasters, two Women Grandmasters, 31 International Masters and seven International Women Masters.

A strong Indian contingent will participate in the tournament, led by former World Junior champion Abhijeet Gupta, two times national champion Murali Karthikeyan and reigning national champion Lalith Babu.

The challenge from West Bengal is led by Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda, joined by his colleagues Deep Sengupta, Neelotpal Das and Saptarshi Roychowdhury.

The organisers have also invited the Indian team of visually challenged chess players for the event, providing them with full hospitality for the duration.

A total of 9 rounds will be played in the tournament under the rules of the Swiss system wherein all the players get to play a total of 9 games, with the final placings being decided on the basis of the total number of points scored by each participant.