Goa Int’l Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament attracting big names

PANAJI: The Goa Chess Association under the aegis of All India Chess Federation will be hosting its 1st Goa International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium Bambolim from Oct 13 – 20.

Kishor Bandekar, treasurer at the All India Chess Federation, said, “The stage is set and we are all prepared to host the games. This is our first major event in the State and we are excited to host the event. We opened the event registrations last week and we have received 27 entries so far of which 14 Grandmasters have registered for the tournament thus confirming their participation.” Bandekar also holds the post of Secretary at the Goa Chess Association.

All those who have registered, hail from 15 different countries; while it is expected many more would their names soon.

“We opened our registrations but we are expecting over 1,500 players to register in this tournament in the coming days in all the three different categories. The interested players should register their entries on our website www.gmgoa.com,” Bandekar said.

The championship is divided in three different categories giving away a total prize money of Rs. 34,00,000.

Secretary of All India Chess Federation Bharat Singh Chauhan, during his visit to Goa, had announced the tournament in October 2018 according to FIDE timetable.

Among the grandmasters, Ukrainian Grandmaster Martyn Kravtsiv (2654 ratings), who competed at the FIDE World Cup in 2013 is the top rated so far in the lot followed by Russia’s Popov Ivan (2609), winner of 2015 European Rapid Chess Championship in Minsk.

Mchedlishvili Mikheil from Georgia, Russia’s Kryakvin Dmitry and Burmakin Vladimir, Ukrainian Bernadskiy Vitaliy, Sivuk Vitaly, Neverov Valeriy and Tukhaev Adam, Netherland’s Tiviakov Sergei, Armenian Ter-Sahakyan Samvel, Kadric Denis from Bosnia, Malakhatko Vadim from Belgium, Rahman Ziaur from Bangladesh are the other grandmasters to feature in the seven-day tournament which will be supported by Indian Super League Club FC Goa.