Indian Grandmasters Vishnu Prasanna, Deepan Chakkravarthy and RR Laxman will headline a strong field in the 2023 Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess Tournament which starts here from December 31.
The tournament, which ends on January 7, 2024, has attracted over 320 entries, including 28 foreign players. India's Aronyak Ghosh (Elo 2545) is the top seed while Russian GM Savchenko Boris (Elo 2505) is seeded second.
"This tournament offers a great opportunity for players who are in good form. It acts as a norm-seeker. One can even complete three IM and GM (norms) if they are in great form," said Tamil Nadu State Chess Association vice-president B Murugavel during a press meet here on Friday.
Some of the other GMs to participate in the event are: Fedorov Alexei (Belarus), Glek Igor (Belgium), Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vietnam), Ziatdinov, Raset (USA), Podolchenko Evgeniy (Belarus) and Manik Mikulas (Slovakia).
The Chennai Open is the third of the six GM competitions in India after the Meghalaya Open and Madurai Open, while Indore Open, Bengaluru Open and Bhubaneswar Open will follow this tournament.
The total prize money for this event is Rs 20,00,000 and the winner will be richer by Rs 4,00,000 and the runner-up will add Rs 3,00,000 to his account.
