Tata Steel Chess India tournament has brought some of the world’s biggest stars to Kolkata, which is about 300km from this city. The Tata Steel Asian junior chess championship, which opens here on Friday, has attracted some of the future stars from the continent.
The tournament, which was inaugurated by five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand and Chanakya Chaudhary (Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel) on Thursday, will have competitions in all three formats — classical, rapid and blitz. More than 100 players from countries such as Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia will compete.
Players from Russia will play under the FIDE flag. The top seed in the classical event in the open section is in fact a Russian — Aleksey Grebnev, with an Elo rating of 2486. L.R. Srihari is the highest-rated Indian. Kazakhstan’s Nazarke Nurgali (2268) heads the girls’ list, followed by the host’s Saina Salonika (2140).
The tournament begins with the rapid championship, followed by classical and blitz. It concludes on September 15.
