Grandmasters meet at Hyderabad from July 15 to 28

HYDERABAD, JUNE 29. Wipro-sponsored Grandmasters chess championship will be held at Hotel Taj Residency here from July 15 to 28, according to Mr. P.T. Ummer Koya, secretary, All India Chess Federation (AICF).

Briefing newsmen here on Thursday, Mr. Koya, who is also the vice-president of FIDE, says the event would yet another chance for the GM-title aspirants from India to clinch the coveted title.

Incidentally, this is the second such tournament in the State after the Chalapathi Grandmasters event in Guntur in February this year.

Fourteen big names, including seven Grandmasters: Evegeny Vladimirov of Kazhakstan (ELO rating 2598), Alexander Fominyh (Russia, 2594), K. Sasikiran (India, 2578), Abhijit Kunte (India, 2556), Leonid Yurtaev (Kirgystan, 2552), Sergey Ionov (Russia, 2541) and Maxim Sorokin (Argentina, 2541) will be in the fray for the winners cheque of $2,500.

Interestingly, both Fominyh and Yurtaev played in the Guntur edition.

The other notable stars expected to do well here are India's youngest IM, Pendyalaya Harikrishna, IM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Bengal's young sensation Sandipan Chanda, veteran D.V. Prasad, National champion S. Vijayalaxmi and world under-18 champion and Wipro's chess ambassador Aarthie Ramaswamy (along with Harikrishna). Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran completes the list of contestants for top honours.

Mr. Koya informed that the tournament was a category II event with Wipro spending about Rs. 25 lakhs as part of its endeavour to promote chess in a big way besides taking care of individuals.

The event offers an ideal platform for the Indians as the 13- round format has a GM norm at 8.5 points and six points for IM norm for men and five points for WGM norm.

Mr. Anirudh, marketing manager of Wipro, reminded that the group was also sponsoring the on-going two-month-long coaching camps for 30 talented youngsters in Bangalore and Calicut. ``Our interest is genuine and can be gauged by the fact that we hired the services of GMs Vladimirov and Sorokin, who will be here to take part in the above camps,'' he said.

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