Top stars for Jr Asian Chess

The 6,600 prize money tournament has attracted entries from 12 nations in the boys8217; and eight in the girls8217; sections.

The winners will be eligible to participate in the World Junior Championships 30th for boys and 17th for girls to be held at Yerevan in the erstwhile Soviet Republic of Armenia from September 18 to October 2.

The champion in the tournament, which is to be played in a 11-round Swiss format, will also earn an IM or IWM title directly.

If there is a clear-cut champion without a tie at the top, the player would be awarded a nine-game statutory Grand Master or Women8217;s Grand Master8217;s norm, it was announced by the organisers, the Maharashtra Chess Association MCA, here last night.

Each nation in the Asian zone as defined by FIDE and including all the Gulf countries, the Indian sub-continent, Japan, China, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia etc barring Russia, which is a separate zone is eligible to send its top junior boy or girl player. The host nation can send in another entry.

The players placed in the top three positions in the previous championships join these participants.

In addition, each federation can send extra players as special entries who wil be charged Rs 15,000 each the amount to go to the world governing body FIDE to encourage juniors to take part, MCA announced.

The organisers said they did not expect any hitch ingetting a visa for the lone Pakistani participant in the tournament.

The top prize will be worth 1,000 and Indian participants will be given the prize money in Rupees. Each section offers ten prizes with the lowest prize worth 100.

The event is to be inaugurated on August 29 by Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. After a draw of lots on the same day the tournament proper is to commence on Wednesday.

The participating countries are
Boys:

Australia, Bangladesh, China, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam one entry each and India 15 entries.

Girls:

Bangladesh, China, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and India 10 entries.

The Indian participants are
Boys:

Harikrishna, who tops the 26 confirmed entries in this group with an ELO rating of 2,500, Ganguly 2498, Neelotpal Das 2410, S Kidambi 2404, S Satyapragyan 2379, Tejas Bakre 2358, Valay Parikh 2270, CJ Arvind 2268, Vikramaditya Kamble 2262, Magesh Chandran 2238, Arjun Tiwari 2218, Pratmesh Mokal 2216, M Satyajit 2150, Akshayraj Kore 2103 and Himanshu Kumar no ELO rating.

Girls: Aarthie Ramaswamy ELO rating 2319, Koneru Humpy 2288, Nisha Mohta 2275, Swati Ghate 2246, S Meenakshi 2226, Tania Sachdev 2131, Y Pratibha 2097, JE Kavitha 2028, Sivagami and Sasinas Haritha both without ELO rating

Foreign participants
Boys:

Mathew Sonter Australia, no ELO rating, Fide Master Enamul Hossain Bangladesh, 2314, Du Shan China, no ELO rating, Said Rakhimbekov Kazakhstan, 2290, Taher Mulla Jumaa Kuwait, no elo rating, Syed Mohd Hassan Pakistan, no ELO rating, John Paul Gomez Philippines, no elo rating, Al Sayed Mohammed Qatar, 2370, PMAB Athukorala Sri Lanka, no ELO rating, Annaberdiev Meilis Turkmenistan, 2248 and Filippov Anton Uzbekistan, no ELO rating.

Girls: Feroza Haque Chowdhary Bangladesh, no ELO rating, Yu Ting China, no ELO rating, Madina Duisenova Kazakhstan, no ELO rating, Beverly Mendoza Philippines, no ELO rating, Anupama Konara Sri Lanka, no ELO rating, Levushkina Elena Uzbekistan, 2103 and Chau Ngoc Giao Vietnam, no ELO rating.