Harikrishna starts among favourites in Shenzhen-Longgang Chess

Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna will start as one of the favourites in the Shenzhen-Longgang Chess Grand Master tournament, which will commence here tomorrow.

Harikrishna, currently ranked World No. 14, had broken into the top-10 recently and would fancy his chance in the pool led by World No. 11 Anish Giri from Netherlands.

"This is an important tournament for me. It's a strong field but I was World No. 10 till just last month. This gives me a lot of confidence," Harikrishna said.

The classical time control tournament will be played in a round robin format, with each player facing each other twice.
 

Apart from Giri and Harikrishna, four other players will be in fray -- Michael Adams from England, the Chinese duo of Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi and Peter Svidler of Russia.

The tournament offers a total prize money of USD 90,000, with the winner taking home USD 20,000.

Interestingly, at the end of the tournament on April 3, all six players will indulge in a friendly team competition, with each of them paired against a prominent businessman from China.