Praggnanandhaa star attraction in Tata Steel Chess

Fresh from making the World Cup semifinals at Baku, teen wizard R Praggnanandhaa will headline the fifth Tata Steel Chess India championship slated to be held here from August 31-September 9

Kolkata: Fresh from making the World Cup semifinals at Baku, teen wizard R Praggnanandhaa will headline the fifth Tata Steel Chess India championship slated to be held here from August 31-September 9, the organisers announced on Friday. All the four Indian quarterfinalists at the Baku World Cup — D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi — will all be in action here.

Top Indian men and women Grandmasters and young Indian talents will compete in the tournament, which has five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand as the ambassador.

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The prize purse for both the open and women’s category will be equal, which is USD 41,500.

The women’s fray, too, showcases the best in the game with current World Champion Wenjun Ju making her debut in the tournament.

Like last year, the tournament will have both Open and Women categories with same format — rapid and blitz.

“This format has already shown some results, as is visible with our young brigade doing well at international tournaments – such as the ongoing World Cup in Baku,” Anand stated in a release.

“The Indian squad at the Asian Games for both men and women are participating at the Tata Steel Chess India, which itself is a testimony about the standard of the tournament.” The overseas participants in the open field will have Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, (World Blitz Champion 2021), Alexander Grischuk of Russia, Teymour Radjabov of Azerbaijan (World Cup Winner 2019), Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan (World Rapid Champion 2021) and Vincent Keymer of Germany (runner-up at World Rapid Championship).

The women’s category will have the Chinese duo of Wenjun Ju — the reigning World Champion– and Tingjie Lei.

There will also be Anna Ushenina of Ukraine, the winner of Tata Steel Chess India Rapid 2022 and Irina Krush, the only American Women GM.

Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Savitha Shri and Vantika Agarwal are the Indian contestants in women’s competition.