Arjun Erigaisi starts as hot favorite in Delhi International Open Chess tournament

The 19th edition of the Delhi International Open Grandmasters Chess tournament kicked off at the Tivoli Garden Resort in New Delhi on Tuesday (March 22).

Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi, the national champion, is the top seed and hot favorite to win the crown.

The chess event, which was sorely missed by players around the world in 2021, is back, albeit with a few changes caused by the pandemic that paralyzed the world.

While there used to be three events with over one Rs 1 crore as prize money, this time there is only a single event with a total of Rs 25 Lakh as a prize purse.

Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta, the 2020 defending champion and five-time Commonwealth Chess champion, is also back in the fray. He is seeded third, behind Pavel Ponkratov of Russia.

300 chess players from 12 countries to compete for top honors

The chess event will be played over 10 rounds and approximately 300 players have already registered for the tournament. This includes players from 12 countries apart from India, a total of 21 Grandmasters, three Woman Grandmasters, 26 International Masters and six Woman International Masters.

“The past two years have not been kind to offline chess tournaments, but suddenly we have a flurry of international events now,” said Bharat Singh Chauhan. The secretary of the All India Chess Federation (AICF) is confident of more tournaments in the future.

This is the second of a series of three International Grandmasters tournaments to be held in March-April. The first was the 1st Guwahati Chess International that ended on Sunday (March 20). After Delhi, the series will move to Ahmedabad for the final installment.

It may be recalled that India have also won the bid to host the 44th Chess Olympiad to be played later this year in Chennai. These three events, plus another three international tournaments in May-June, will act as a curtain raiser for the biggest chess spectacle to be held in India for the first time.