Korchnoi, Akopian cynosure of all eyes

By Manuel Aaron

CALCUTTA, FEB. 5. Famous former World Championship challenger Viktor Korchnoi and the present runner-up in the Las Vegas FIDE World chess championship, Vladimir Akopian will be the cynosure of all eyes when the 11th Goodricke International Open gets underway tomorrow at the Gorky Sadan.

There has been a big change in the list of Grandmasters. Of the 16 who took part here last year, only one, Maxim Sorokin of Argentina is again playing this year. The other grandmasters are here for the first time. Remarkably, two Chinese are playing in this event. GM Peng Xiaomin and Woman GM Qin Kanying will add a lot of spice to this annual Indian Open which provides valuable opportunities to title aspirants.

So far, IMs from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines have sought IM and GM norms in this prestigious tournament. The reputation of this tournament has spread far and wide so much that this year IMs from England, Germany, France, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan have arrived to hunt for GM norms side by side with the locals.

Indian Champion K. Sasikiran and Abhijit Kunte will be looking for their final GM norms in this event. No Indian has been successful in getting a GM norm since Praveen Thipsay achieved it last in 1994. Quite a few of the Indians have completed three IM norms but are playing for their rating to reach 2400 which is the minimum for the award of the IM title.

Apart from Qin Kanying, the Woman Grandmaster, there are five other female competitors. WIM S. Vijayalakshmi of Indian Airlines would be looking for her final WGM norm. World under-18 girls' champion Aarthie Ramaswamy and silver medalist in the World under-12 girls' Championship, Koneru Humpy will be aiming for their maiden WGM norms as they wait for the formal award of their WIM titles.

This event is a 11-round swiss. Games begin everyday at 1:30 p.m. Each round will last a maximum of seven hours. For the first time, Mr P.T. Ummer Koya, the Secretary of the All India Chess Federation will don the role of Chief Arbiter for this tournament. This event has a total prize pool of $ 10,250. There are 15 cash prizes capped by a first prize of $ 2,700.

lThe top 37 players according to ratings:

1. GM Vladimir Akopian (Arm); 2. GM Viktor Korchnoy (Swi); 3. GM Peng Xiaomin (Chn); 4. GM Ildar Ibragimov (Rus); 5. GM Gregory Kaidanov (USA); 6. GM Evgeny Vladimirov (Kaz); 7. GM Maxim Sorokin (Arg); 8. GM Alexander Goloshchapov (Ukr); 9. GM Viorel Iordachescu (Mda); 10. GM Jozsef Horvath (Hun); 11. GM Dao Thien Hai (Vie); 12. GM Bogdan Lalic (Eng); 13. GM Toni Najdoski (Macedonia); 14. GM Leonid Yurtayev (Kgz); 15. IM K.Sasikiran (Ind); 16. GM Pavel Blatny (Cze); 17. IM Tahir Vahidov (Uzb); 18. IM Abhijit Kunte (Ind); 19. GM Praveen Thipsay (Ind); 20. WGM Qin Kanying (Chn); 21. IM Ziaur Rahman (Ban); 22. IM R.B.Ramesh (Ind); 23. S.S.Ganguly (Ind); 24. IM Azer Mirzoev (Aze); 25. IM G.B.Prakash (Ind); 26. Sundararajan Kidambi (Ind); 27. Sandipan Chanda (Ind); 28. IM D.V.Prasad (Ind); 29. IM Mas Hafizulhelmi (Mal); 30. IM Mathias Roeder (Ger); 31. IM V.Saravanan (Ind); 32. IM Andrew Webster (Eng); 33. WIM S.Vijayalakshmi (Ind); 34. IM K.Murugan (Ind); 35. IM Reefat bin Sattar (Ban); 36. C.S.Gokhale (Ind); 37. IM Amaud Payen (Fra).

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Anuja, Meenal, Umadevi and Farah Khan breeze
           through
Next     : Svidler remains unbeaten