Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta starts as the top ranked Indian in the Abu Dhabi Masters, where as many as 88 Indians are participating in the Masters section.
With Indian players enjoying a overwhelming presence among 158 participants, it looks like an Indian open away from home country for GMs like Aravindh Chithambaram, Murali Karthikeyan , S L Narayanan who do not play many tournaments in India.
Le Quang Leim of Vietnam starts as the top seed in the Masters section that carries a total prize purse of USD 40000, including the blitz event.
Gupta might be the top ranked Indian but he still starts as the 20th seed in a star studded field that boasts of 47 Grand Masters and 28 International Masters.
Young International Master Nihal Sarin will hope to get his Grandmaster norm as he starts as the highest ranked non-GM in the tournament.
The tournament that carries a first prize of 13000 USD will be played over nine rounds under classical system with 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes to finish the game with a 30 second increment from move one.
Erigaisi Arjun is the other super talent who the chess buffs would like to follow during the course of the event. The Hyderabadi boy has been making a mark off late and has surged to 2500 rating levels which are enough to become Grandmaster as per rules. Arjun will also be a strong contender for a Grandmaster norm.
Not without reasons, there are many Indian versus Indian pairings in the first round and Abhijeet Gupta taking on compatriot Shailesh Dravid in the opener.
Aravindh Chithambaram meets Nisha Mohota while Narayanan meets his Kerala-mate Jimmy Jubin who has had some noteworthy success lately.
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