Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika starts as the fourth seed and will take on Bangladesh's Shamima Akter Liza in the first round of the World Women's Chess Championship that gets underway here.
Twice bronze-medallist after losing in the semi-final in the last two editions, Harika will look forward to better her records in the knockout world championships that are held biennially.
Besides Harika, International Master and reigning national champion Padmini Rout is the other Indian in the fray and she meets Elina Danielian of Armenia in the opener. It may be recalled that Indian ace Koneru Humpy withdrew from the event.
The 64-player championship will be played over six rounds with two rounds under Classical time control in each round. In case of a tied result, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner in each round. The final will be played over six-games.
The total prize fund of the Championship is USD 450,000. The first round loser will take home USD 3750 while those who are eliminated in round two will get USD 5500, The winner's purse is USD 60,000 (Rs. 41 lakh approx.).
For Harika, the real challenge will start only from round two as she gets natural benefits of a knock-out in the opener being one of the top seeds. With over 400 rating points separating her and Shamima Akter, the Indian is obviously an overwhelming favourite in the opening tie.
It will not be the same for Padmini Rout who recently got back to form winning the National women's premier for the third time in a row.
Danielian will in fact be rating favourite against Padmini and the Armenian has also attained the distinction of being a Grandmaster. The Indian starts as the 40th seed against 25th billing for her opponent in this encounter.
Since it was announced, the world championship has been marred by controversy over the compulsory 'Hijab' or a head-scarf that all participants must wear while playing.
Georgian-turned American Nazi Paikidze was the first to protest against granting the championship to Iran and her voice gained support from various quarters for many days.
However, FIDE, the apex world body for the game, stood by its decision and the event will be held with 64-players as announced earlier.
In the absence of World Champion Yifan Hou of China, her compatriot Ju Wenjun gets the top billing. The latter's performance in the just concluded Gibraltar International open was a notch above as she was fighting for top spot amidst some serious competition coming from top male Grandmasters.
Besides Wenjun, Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine and Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia are two players who are above Harika in ratings.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
