In Picture From Left the 4th one is Anand Viswanathan
Five-time world champion India’s Viswanathan Anand facing Grand Master Wesley So in opening round of Tata Steel Chess Tournament at Kolkata today. He will begin his campaign against Filipino-American Wesley So in the star-studded Tata Steel Chess India 2018 beginning today.
Anand, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Wesley So – some of the world’s current top Grandmasters – will battle it out in a new super-tournament, Tata Steel Chess India 2018, from today November 9-14, in Kolkata’s Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ auditorium.
The tournament, which will be played in Rapid and Blitz formats, has 11 top-ranked players from around the world.
Viswanathan Anand, who has not played in a tournament in India for over two decades, said yesterday at the inaugural ceremony: “First, tournaments like the Tata Steel Chess India tournament are important because it fills the gap in India where elite meets like this are missing.
Second, it is very special to play at home but I’m not more nervous because of that. I am very happy to be here in Kolkata, though I do remember that I missed my GM norm during a tournament here in 1992!”
World No. 3 (Classical) Shakhriyar Mamedyarov: “It’s not about the ELO ratings. In this tournament, 7 to 8 players have a very good chance of winning.” When asked whether his Rapid (No. 2) and Blitz (No.3) rankings made him the top seed at this tournament, Hikaru Nakamura said: “I don’t care about rankings. We are all here just to play and enjoy the chess.”
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The players are Hikaru Nakamura from the United States, Levon Aronian from Armenia, Sergey Karjakin from Russia, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan, Wesley So from the US and Viswanathan Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Vidit Gujrathhi, Nihal Sarin and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu from India.
The participants will play a single round robin (all play all) Rapid Tournament on November 9th, 10th, and 11th followed by a double round robin Blitz tournament on November 13th and 14th.
Tata Steel Chess India is part of the FIDE (International Chess Federation) calendar and is being organized under the aegis of All India Chess Federation and the Bengal Chess Association.
The total prize money in the two events is US$ 40,000 with first prizes of US$ 10,000 and US$ 7,500 in the Rapid and Blitz games, respectively.
Tania Sachdev, WGM and chess commentator and presenter will be one of the host- commentators along with IM Lawrence Trent, a known face in the chess community.
Tournament Director, Jeroen van den Berg, who has also been the Director of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament held at Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands, among others, expressed his happiness at helming a world-class tournament in India.
The tournament has been conceptualised and is being conducted by Gameplan Sports Pvt Ltd, a 20-year-old sports management company that has been involved with several top sports tournaments in India over the last two decades.
Mr Sunil Bhaskaran, Vice President (Corporate Services), Tata Steel, told to the media: “Welcome to the first-ever Tata Steel Chess India. Chess is quite a religion here in India and especially in Kolkata.
We hope that this tournament will excite many more people to be connected with chess in India.
We are particularly happy that Mr Viswanathan Anand has helped us put this together. We hope to see this grow annually as we go ahead.
The final leg will be of double round-robin blitz concluding on November 14.
Pratyusha Mukherjee
Journalist, Kolkata, India
