Date:12/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/12/stories/2007071261582300.htm

Sport - Chess

National ‘A’ chess advanced

Chennai: The National ‘A’ chess championship has been advanced to September 4.

It will be held at the St. Joseph’s College of Engineering for a record prize fund of Rs. 4,50,000. The final will be on September 16.

The 30 players who qualified from the National ‘B’ at Dindigul last month will join the six seeded players from the previous National ‘A’ at Valsad and all the Grandmasters of the country will take part in a 13-round Swiss-format event.

Four-time champion S.S. Ganguly of Indian Oil will be looking forward to winning the event for the fifth time in a row and equal the record held by Manuel Aaron.

The top six of last year were Ganguly, J. Deepan Chakkaravarthy, Arun Prasad (all PSPB), Gogineni Rohit (AP), Suvrajit Saha (Rly) and G.N. Gopal (Ker).

Those who come in the top this time should find a place in the Indian team for the Chess Olympiad to be held at Dresden (Germany) next year. However, World No.1 Viswanathan Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran and P. Harikrishna are not required to play in the Nationals as they hold a rating of above 2650.