The Hindu : Sport / Chess : India to host super GM tournament

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 28, 2004

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Sport - Chess

India to host super GM tournament

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE, APRIL 27. India will soon have its own super Grandmaster (GM) tournament.

A Category 16 GM tournament would be held at Pune in August or September, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) secretary P.T. Ummer Koya told The Hindu here on Tuesday. "It will by far be the strongest closed tournament in India,'' he said. "The strongest event we've had so far has been of Category 11."

Ten formidable GMs would be in the fray for this Rs. 50-lakh tourney. Krishnan Sasikiran, Pendyala Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte and Sandipan Chanda — members of the Indian men's team for the Olympiad led by the World No. 2 Viswanathan Anand — will be joined by five super Grandmasters from abroad. ``We are looking at overseas players with a rating of well over 2650,'' Mr. Koya said.

The AICF secretary said Pune was chosen as the venue of this prestigious tournament because of its chess culture. "The city has many quality chess players, like GM Kunte and Woman Grandmaster Swati Ghate,'' he said. ``Besides, the people there love this game. During the last couple of days, I met the IOA president Suresh Kalmadi, who seemed very keen to host the tournament in his city; he's promised to help me in the organisational aspects. I had also meetings with the Maharasthra Government officials and they have extended their support.''

Mr. Koya said the AICF was planning to have more higher category tournaments after Pune. ``Indian players have been showing tremendous improvement of late, and they need opportunities at home to showcase their talent.''

The GM tournament would be held as part of a chess festival in Pune, he added. ``There would be other events along with the main event, like a blindfold tournament.''

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