The Hindu : Sport / Chess : International Open from today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 08, 2004

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International Open from today

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA, NOV. 7. International chess is all set to return to the city after a one-year gap.

Asia's biggest annual event, which was being sponsored by Goodricke, ran into trouble after the tea major pulled out citing some problems. However, the organiser — Alekhine Chess Club — has decided to manage the show itself and the International Open, the new name for the event, will begin on Monday.

There are not many high-profile names but the number of Grandmasters is encouraging. One of the world's top-50 players, Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus, leads the list with 2659 Elo points.

Players from 11 countries including 15 GMs and one Woman GM — India's Nisha Mohota — will fight for honours.

The Indian interest will revolve around GMs Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte, Sandipan Chanda, Tejas Bakre, Dibyendu Barua, Lanka Ravi, D.V. Prasad and WGM Mohota.

There will also be 10 Indian IMs — Neelotpal Das, Sriram Jha, R.R. Laxman, D.K. Sharma, Ravi T.S., S. Satyapragyan, Rahul Shetty and Neeraj Mishra. For the record, no Indian has ever won an international meet here.

The total prize money is $12,500 with the winner getting $3,000 and runner-up $2,400.

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