Six Indian chess GMs qualified to play in Grand Swiss Tournament

Six Indian chess Grandmasters, including former World Champion V. Anand, has qualified for the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Tournament 2019 as of June 1, 2019, FIDE the global chess body said on Monday.

The 'FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss' will be held in the Isle of Man from October 10 to 21, and is expected to be the strongest Swiss-system tournament in the history of chess.

The prize fund will be US$432,500, with a first prize of $70,000.

The Indian players who have qualified are Anand, P. Harikrishna, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, B. Adhiban, K. Sasikiran and R. Sethuraman.

The lists of players qualified from the African, American and Asian Continental Championships will be published as soon as the respective events are over, FIDE said.

Top-ranked players like World Champion Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Anish Giri and others are also in the fray, FIDE said.

The tournament is part of the 2020 FIDE World Championship cycle, with the winner qualifying for the Candidates' Tournament which will produce a challenger to Magnus Carlsen in the next FIDE World Championship Match.

The starting field of 160 players will feature 120 FIDE qualifiers, with the world's top-100 players invited based on their average rating over a 12-month period.

The other 40 participants will be chosen as "wildcards" allocated by the Tournament Director, Alan Ormsby, including four spots allocated to Chess.com online qualifiers.

"Swiss tournaments are one of the most attractive formats to compete in our sport: they produce very interesting clashes, allowing rising stars or not-so-strong players to cross swords with members of the chess elite. This democratic approach has many supporters, and it was a pending matter for FIDE to have a massive Swiss Open among our official competitions," FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich had said earlier.

--IANS

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