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The Maharashtra Chess Association (MCA), under the aegis of the All India Chess Federation (AICF), will conduct two international chess tournaments in Pune in the coming days.
The first Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament (for players above the 2000 rating) will be held at Boxing Hall, Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi, Pune.
The Pune Open Chess tournament (for players below the 2000 rating) will also be played at the same venue.
The Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament will be held from May 31 to June 8, while the Pune Open Chess competition will be held from June 1 to June 4. Contestants from about 13 countries and over 20 Indian states will participate in the tournaments.
Maharashtra Sports Minister Sunil Kedar and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will inaugurate the tournament on May 31.
Grandmaster Nigel Short, VP, FIDE, and members of the MCA including Parinay Fuke, President, Siddharth Mayur, Working President, Grandmaster Abhiit Kunte, Senior VP, Aniruddha Deshpande will be the guests of honor.
Girish Chitale, MCA VP, Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary, All India Chess Federation, and Ashok Jain, former President and mentor of Maharashtra Chess Association, will be present for the occasion.
Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament will be for players above 2000 rating
The Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament will be open to players who have a Standard FIDE rating of 2000 and above in the current rating list. The total prize money is Rs 20,00,000.
The tournament will be played under the FIDE Laws of Chess for a total of 11 rounds on a Swiss-League basis. The top seed for this tournament will be GM Farukh Amonatov, whose ELO rating is 2622. The highest rated Indian player is GM Lalith Babu MR whose ELO rating is 2563.
Top chess players Bhakti Kulkarni, Soumya Swaminathan, Divya Deshmukh to participate in Pune
Prominent women players like International Master Bhakti Kulkarni, IM Soumya Swaminathan, WGM Mary Ann Gomes, WGM Divya Deshmukh, and WGM Priyanka Nutakki will be taking part in this tournament.
Players from Tajikistan, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, USA, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will be participating in the tourney. 20 Grandmasters, 27 International Masters, 5 Women Grandmasters and 7 Women International Masters will be taking part in this tournament.
For the Pune Open Chess Championship, players who have not crossed the FIDE rating of 2000 in the past 36 months prior to the start of the event will be eligible to participate. Prize money of Rs 10,00,000 will be presented to the winners. Similarly, the tournament will be played under the FIDE Laws of Chess for a total of 10 rounds on a Swiss League-basis.
GM Nigel Short will be playing a simultaneous game against approximately 25 young and upcoming players.
