The third edition of the Late Shri Manohar Parrikar Goa International chess tournament returns after a gap of five years, providing domestic players, particularly from Goa, a platform to compete against some of the top minds in the game and pick up valuable rating points
Panaji: The third edition of the Late Shri Manohar Parrikar
Goa International chess tournament
returns after a gap of five years, providing domestic players, particularly from Goa, a platform to compete against some of the top minds in the game and pick up valuable rating points.
Four GM tournaments are scheduled in India until the end of this month. After stops in Bhubaneswar, Madurai and Chennai, the final stop for the grandmasters is in Goa, with the
Goa Chess Association
(GCA) offering a total of Rs 53 lakh in prize money to attract some of the big names.
The tournament will take place from Jan 11 to 19 at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Taleigao.
“We have had to offer appearance money to some players (Grandmasters) to take part in our tournament,” said GCA president
Mahesh Candolkar
. Secretary Ashesh Keni said money alone cannot be a motivation for the big names as the players could lose points, if they taste defeat against lower-ranked competitors in the tournament.
For this edition, there is participation from 23 countries. A total of 850 have registered and includes 19 Grandmasters, 35 International Masters, 7 Women International Masters, 13 FIDE Masters, 11 Candidate Masters, 4 Women Fide Masters for a total of 96 title players.
Diptayan Ghosh
is the highest rated player, while among international players, Siddharth Jagadeesh from Singapore leads the list. There are four international players from Egypt. However, the conflict in Iran, Russia and Ukraine means not everyone who wanted to take part in the tournament have made the trip to India.
“The main aim of our association is to provide Goan players with the opportunity to receive a norm that will provide them with the funding they require to attend international tournaments,” said Candolkar.
The nine-day international event will showcase Goa’s top chess talents, which includes GM Anurag Mhamal, the state’s first Grandmaster, IM Ameya Audi, a leading International Master, IM Ethan Vaz, one of India’s youngest International Masters, and Ritviz Parab, a promising talent. GM Leon Mendonca, the sixth Indian to join the list of top 20 juniors in the world of chess, will miss due to bigger challenges elsewhere.
D Gukesh, the youngest world champion in the history of chess, took part in the last edition of the tournament in Goa.
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