Harikrishna braces up for Shakmir Chess 2017

Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna is all set to clash against the best in the world at the prestigious Shakmir Chess 2017 tournament to be held here from tomorrow.
The tournament, which is dedicated to the memory of late Azerbaijan Grandmaster Vugar Gashimov, is an invitational event and has over the years attracted the cream de le cream from the world of chess.
Ranked 14th in the world, Harikrishna will be raring to go up against the elite playing field spearheaded by World No. 2 Wesley So of USA. The 10-man round-robin tournament offers a total prize money of Euro 100,000 and will also see in action the Russian pair of World No. 4 and World No. 8, Vladimir Kramnik and Sergwey Karjakin, respectively.

A whopping Euro 25,000 will go to the winner and players who will battle it out are Shakriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Michael Adams (England), Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine), Radoslaw Wojtasek (Poland), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan).
The tournament will be played at a time control of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then each player will be allotted 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.
A tie-break match will be played in case of a tie for first place.