Chanda to lead Indian challenge, Kravtsiv among favourites

Mumbai:seasoned grandmaster Sandipan Chanda and Diptayan Ghosh will lead the Indian challenge in the 11th Mumbai Mayor’s International Chess Tournament which starts at the Mount Litera International School, Bandra Kurla Complex on Monday.

Ukrainian GM Martyn Kravtsiv, the top seed with an ELO rating of 2662, leads a strong field of more than 200 chess players from 22 countries in the international open section of the event which has a total prize fund of ~35 lakh. GM Kravtsiv, who was the winner of the 8th edition of Mayor’s Cup, is currently ranked 80th in the world ranking is expected to face tough challenge from GM Farrukh Amonatov (ELO 2605) of Tajikistan, the second seed, and defending champion IM Nguyen Van Huy (ELO 2462) of Vietnam.

The event has attracted more than 1200 players from all over the world.

Among the other Indians in the fray, Erigaisi Arjun (2488) will look to secure his IM norm in this tournament.

WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (2294) and WIM Pratyusha Bodda (2269) will be hoping to gain some ranking points playing against a strong field.

The players in the open international section would be vying for the first prize of ~3 lakh while the runners up will get ~2.3 lakh and ~1.25 lakh respectively from a pool of Rs13 lakh in this 10-round tournament with classical time control.

The ‘B’ category event with prize money of ~11 lakh would also be held simultaneously and have a number of upcoming players in the fray while the ‘C’ category event, with a prize fund of ~11 lakh would be conducted from June 7-10.