Top guns in action at ChessMine

A few of the top Grand Masters and International Masters from across the country will be seen in action when ChessMine, a rapid plus blitz FIDE-rated chess tournament gets underway here on Saturday.

Though the absence of Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna might take the sheen away from the competition a bit, the likes of GM Vidit Gujrathi, reigning Asian champion GM Sethuraman SP, GM Karthikeyan Murali, GM Soumya Swaminathan and the young IM Nihal Sarin will look to make the most of the opportunity at the three-day event.

The competition, with a total prize bag of Rs 2.5 lakh, will follow the Swiss System of 10 rounds with every round lasting for 15 minutes apart from a 10-second increment which will be allowed from the first move for the entire game.

Having already qualified for the Chess World Cup in Georgia later this year, Gujrathi will be hoping to use this competition as a preparatory tournament ahead of the big one.