GM Arjun Erigaisi, Abhijeet Gupta start as favourites in Delhi International open chess

Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi and Abhijeet Gupta will start as favourites when the 19th edition of the Delhi International open chess tournament gets underway on Tuesday.

Arjun starts as the top seed, while defending champion and five-time Commonwealth champion Abhijeet will be the third seed. Russian Pavel Ponkratov has been seeded second. The tournament, which returns after a COVID-induced break, will have a single event with Rs 25 lakh as prize purse.

The event will be played over 10 rounds and approximately 300 players have already registered for it. This includes players from 12 countries, apart from India, and a total of 21 Grandmasters, three Women Grandmasters, 26 International Masters and six Women International Masters.

"The past two years have not been the kind for off line chess tournaments but suddenly we have a flurry of International events now," said All India Chess Federation Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan. This is the second event in a row after the Guwahati International that ended on Sunday.

After this event, the caravan will move to Ahmedabad for the final instalment of the triple GM International events in India. India has also won the bid for the Chess Olympiad to be played later this year in Chennai.