Nagpur: As many as 465 prodigies will move their pawns and pieces on the 64 squares when the U-7 National Chess Championship returns to Nagpur after 21 years. The 39th National U-7 Open and Girls Chess Championship will begin at the GH Raisoni Institute of Engineering and Technology (GHRIET), Shraddha Park, Wadi-Hingna Link Road, from Tuesday.The five-day tournament to select the Indian contingent for the U-7 Asian and U-8 World Championship is being organised jointly by the Maharashtra Chess Association (MCA), Chess Association Nagpur (CAN) and GH Raisoni Sports and Cultural Foundation under the aegis of the All India Chess Federation (AICF).Briefing the media, tournament director and MCA secretary Niranjan Godbole said, “The nine-round tournament in both the open and girls’ group, carrying a total prize fund of ₹5,00,000, received tremendous response in Nagpur. Future chess players of the country representing 20 states will showcase their talent over the next five days. A total of 76 players from Maharashtra will be in action.”A total of 15 Nagpur players, including eight boys and seven girls, will look to make most of their home conditions.The winner in both the open and girls section will take home Rs 50,000 prize money while, in both the categories, the top 20 finishers will get trophies and cash rewards, informed organising secretary Bhushan Sriwas.The tournament will be inaugurated by the hands of Women’s World Cup winner Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh on Tuesday morning.62 Intl Rated Players in FrayWith an ELo of 1591, Telangana’s Lavik Ram Vislavath and Udhriti Bhattacharya (1529) of West Bengal will spearhead the challenge as top seeds in the open and girls’ section respectively. Of the 265 players in the open field, 48 are registered with world chess federation (FIDE) while a mere 14 girls from the 146 in fray have international ratings points.In the open section, Lavik is followed by Karnataka’s B Bhat Sathwik (1582), Dharmik Panchakatla of Andhra Pradesh (1563), Shivansh Basu from West Bengal (1562), and Maharashtra’ Aksh Shrivastava (1554) as the top five seeded participants.In the girls’ group, top-seeded Udhriti is followed by Delhi’s Aarini Lahoty (1525) and Aaditri Majumdar of West Bengal (1521) as the second and third seeds respectively. Of the 29 players from host Maharashtra, Liyaa Krishnan (1433) will lead the home teams challenge as eighth seed.Apart from Godbole, the press conference was attended by deputy chief arbiter IA P Palaniappan, Mrunal Naik and Amit Gandhare from the Raisoni Group, SS Soman, Vilas Mhatre, Ninant Pednekar, IA Pravin Thakare.
