Array of GMs for Goodricke meet

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, FEB. 5. An array of 14 Grandmasters, headed by Andrei Kharlov of Russia with an Elo rating of 2639, three Woman Grandmasters, 25 International Masters and two women International Masters representing 19 countries, along with India's two GM title aspirants, P. Harikrishna and G.B. Prakash, will be seen in action in 12th Goodricke International Open chess tournament to be held at the Gorky Sadan here from Tuesday.

The 11-day, 11-round Swiss league competition with total entries of 66 is being hosted by the Goodricke National Chess Academy under the aegis of the All India Chess Federation.

Conceived 12 years ago with the prime motive of giving the Indian talent a chance to play with top GMs of the world, the meet has come a long way and has benefited Indian chess immensely. The tournament is also the strongest in the Asia- Australia region.

GM Kharlov of Russia will, obviously, be the favourite to win the tournament what with an Elo rating of 2639, highest in this meet. But chess being a cerebral sport, any of the 13 other GMs and three WGMs could walk away with the top honours and the accompanying prize fund of $2700.

The 32-year-old Kharlov was the joint Russian champion in 1990. The following year he won the World under-26 title and emerged the European Cup champion in 1996. He is the current joint European champion.

GM Vladimirov Evgeny of Kazakhstan is the second highest rated player with an Elo rating of 2612. The bespectacled 44-year-old is known as the `second Kasparov.' He was the champion of Kazakhstan in 1999 and has won many tournaments. The other GM with above 2600 rating is Dr. Toni Najdoski of Macedonia with an Elo rating of 2601. The first GM of his country, this 31- year- old has a Ph.D in chess science.

There are 10 GMs and two IMs in the range of 2500 rating. Heading the group is GM Tomasz Markowski of Poland (2595), Indian GM Abhijit Kunte (2568), GM Villamayor Bong of the Philippines (2560), GM Dimitri Komarov of Ukraine (2540), GM Dimitri Reinderman of the Netherlands (2539), GM Maxim Sorokin of Argentina (2538), GM Igor Rausis of Latvia (2525), GM Joseph G. Gallaghar of Switzerland (2519), GM Victor Mikhalevski of Israel (2500), GM Alexie Barsov of Uzbekistan (2500) and GM Dibyendu Barua of India (2494). The two IMs are P. Harikrishna of India (2514) and Ehshan Ghaem-Maghami of Iran (2504).

S. Vijayalakshmi of India is the highest rated WGM with 2416. The other two, Joana Dworakoswka of Poland and Julia Galianina of Russia are in the 2300 plus rating. Among the foreign IMs, Ehshan is followed by Bagirov Rufat of Azerbaijan (2465), Amon Simutowe of Zambia (2462), Reefat Bin Sattar and Ziaur Rahman, both of Bangladesh, with 2458 and 2447 respectively, Alexie Khamatgaleev of Russia (2412), Chito Garma of the Philippines (2400), Nelson Mariano of the Philippines (2395), Abdul al Rakib of Bangladesh (2359) and Oleg Boricsev of Hungary (2352).

There are 14 Indian IMs in the fray. Harikrishna and Prakash apart, the others are R.B. Ramesh, Suryasekhar Ganguly, V. Saravanan, Sandipan Chanda, Neelotpal Das, Tejas R. Bakre, K. Murugan, P. Konguvel, Lanka Ravi, N. Sudhakar Babu, Shankar Roy, Anup Deshmukh and Sharad S. Tilak.

Games will be played from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. everyday with each player making 40 moves in first one-and-a-half hours and the rest in 30 minutes.

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