World Champion Magnum Carlsen and former title holder Viswanathan Anand to play in Tata Steel Chess in Kolkata

This would be the first time that any leg of the GCT, which has been inspired by chess legend Gary Kasparov and launched in 2015, would be held in Asia.

Other participants in this prestigious meet, which offers a prize money of 1,50,000 dollars, include Ding Liren of China, Anish Gir of Holland, Levon Aronian from Armenia, Wesley So from United States, Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, Hikaru Nakamura of United States. Besides them, two other grand masters from India –P Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi- have also joined the fray as wild card entrants.

This meet would be the penultimate event of the eight leg GCT which has been expanded this time to four continents. The first five legs have already been held at  different cities in West Africa, Europe and United States. The sixth one is now being held in Bucharest, Romania  while the grand finale of the tour would be held in London from Dec 2 next. The prize money at the grand finale is 1.75 million dollars.

A beautiful trophy for the chempion, made of bronze, a replica of  a Knight  (a piece in the game of chess) created by  city based sculptor Madhusudan Sarkar, was unveiled today at a crowded media conference here by secretary of All India Chess Federation Bharat Singh Chauhan and Vice President , Corporate Communications of  Tata Steel, the title sponsor of this mega event Chanakya Chaudhary in presence of  Indian Grand Master Dibyendu Barua.

Speaking on the occasion, Chauhan informed: “Chess is seeing a resurgence  and renewed interest in its origin. India is currently ranked 4th in the world based on the average rating of its top ten playsers and has more FIDE registered chess players than any other country. This association of Grand Chess Tour and Tata Steel Chess India- Rapid & Blitz is very promising and brings a refreshinh change for the game with many untapped possibilities.”

Commenting on the meet Chanakya Chaudhary said Tata Steel is delighted to bring the second edition of Tata Steel Chess India , this time as part of the Grand Chess Tour to Kolkata . They preferred Kolkata as its successful hosting of Tata Steel Chess last year and its popularity in this great city.  

(Images by Avishek Mitra/IBNS)