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The 12th edition of the Norway Chess competition will have three Indian Grandmasters competing - Koneru Humpy, Vaishali Rameshbabu and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. The competition is scheduled to take place from May 27 to June 7 at SR-Bank’s main building in Stavanger, Norway.
World No. 1, Magnus Carlsen will be the biggest star attraction in the Norway Chess competition. He will be joined by the likes of World No. 3, Hikaru Nakamura (USA), World Champion Ding Liren (China), Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun (China), Lei Tingjie (China), etc.
It is worth noting that Norway Chess extends invitations annually to top Grandmasters within the top 100 world rating list. However, there has been no woman on the list. Unequal prize money is another reason behind the women’s non-participation in top-level competitions.
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In a bid to fight against the scarcity of women in top-level private competitions, Norway Chess has come up with the world’s first-ever equal-female tournament, this year.
A separate Norway Chess Women’s Tournament will be held in the same hall, concurrently. Besides, there will be an equal number of women’s representatives as men. The Norway Chess Women’s Tournament will also follow the same format and offer an equivalent prize fund.
Much to the delight of the Indian fans, the brother-sister duo of Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali will make their presence felt in their respective tournaments in Norway.
“Norway Chess are focused on making the game more spectator friendly”- Viswanathan Anand
Meanwhile, Indian legendary Chess player, Viswanathan Anand gave his two cents on the Norway Chess competition. The five-time world champion lauded Norway Chess’s initiative to popularize women’s game and offer an equal prize fund.
He credited them for always coming up with innovations and was looking forward to watching the competition.
"Norway chess are focused on making the game more spectator friendly and accessible. They experiment a lot with the format and time controls. They are very innovative in this area. I welcome their attempt to help popularise the women's game by having an equal prize fund for the women this year. Always a tournament to look forward to both as a spectator and as a participant,” Viswanathan Anand was quoted as saying by the Bridge.
