Doha:
Spearheading the Indian challenge in the world’s strongest open, Grandmaster P Harikrishna will meet Hyderabad city-mate Grandmaster D Harika in the first round of the Qatar Masters that starts here. It’s a star studded field, with 92 Grandmasters from 40 countries and there are 21 Indians in the fray among 154 participants.
Grandmaster Anish Giri from Holland starts as the top seed in the 109800 USD prize money tournament. Giri, who has Nepalese father and Russian mother, is currently ranked number seven in the world.
The biggest draw in the tournament is however not Giri despite his top billing. It is undoubtedly Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik of Russia who was somehow persuaded by chief organiser Grandmaster Mohamed Al Modaihki to be a part of this spectacle.
Kramnik, a former world champion, is seeded second and is participating in an open tournament after almost 20 years.
For the record there are 14 players above 2700 rating in the fray which has been unheard off in an open tournament before. There are 42 others who are above the 2600 ELO rating mark, a statistic never reached in any open in the world.
While Harikrishna starts as the sixth seed, the first round pairing is indicative enough that he will feel at home and there will be no below 2500 rating player that the Indian will face in all likelihood.
Finding himself in a very unfamiliar situation is former world junior champion Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta who is ranked 35th here. Winner of several open tournaments, Gupta normally ranks in top ten in usual open tournaments he participates in. Irine Sukandar Kharisma from Indonesia plays with Gupta in the opener.
Indian Grandmasters B Adhiban, Surya Shkehar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda are amongst those who will hope to meet and beat a top guy from the 2700 club in the tournament.
Speaking about his chances, Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta said, “This is indeed the toughest open for me and it’s a privilege to be part of an elite gathering. In here I guess I will be taking one game at a time, and hopefully I can enjoy the tournament on the whole.”
There will be nine rounds in all and the games will be played under standard time control with 90 minutes to both players for first 40 moves and another 30 minutes to complete the game with a 30 seconds increment from move one.
