Twelve elite women players (six Indians and six foreigners) will fight it out for the top honours in the SBI Life-AICF Women Grandmaster Chess Championship, to be jointly organized by Indian Chess School & South Mumbai Chess Academy under the auspices of All India Chess Federation (AICF) and to be played at The Acres Club, Chembur from June 12-19, 2018.
WGM-Anna-Zozulia
The 12 women players have been selected by the AICF and the event provides Indian Women Grandmaster and Women International Master an opportunity to try and pick up norms to earn higher titles.
This championship is a ‘Category ’10’ Women’s Grandmaster Chess Tournament, which is one of the strongest events to be held in the country. The tournament offers a whopping prize fund of Rs.7.50 lakhs (US$ 11,000) with the winner set to earn Rs 1.60 lakhs.
WGM Munguntuul Batkhuyag
The leading foreign players are, Munguntuul Batkhuyag of Mongolia (ELO rating 2410) and Anna Zozulia of Belgium (ELO 2314), both having full-fledged International Chess Masters (IM) title. WGM Tokhirjonova Gulrukhbegim of Uzbekistan (ELO 2379), WGM Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam (ELO 2376) and Nakhbayeva Guliskhan of Kazakhstan (ELO 2323) along with Women International Master is Tomilova Elena from Russia (ELO 2334), are the other contenders from overseas.
The Indian challenge would be spearheaded by WIM Aakanksha Hagawane (2297), who is closely followed by WIM G.K. Monnisha (2295), WIM Vantika Agrawal (2279), and WIM Srija Seshadri (2207). Two of India’s most promising youngsters, WFM Divya Deshmukh (2138), the reigning World Under-12 Champion and former Asian Champion, Rakshitta Ravi (2067), will test their skills against these top women and they both have the capability to springing surprises.
As a part of this festival, an All India FIDE Rating Chess Tournament for children from age under-7 to under-15 in nine categories will be conducted simultaneously. A total prize fund of Rs one lakh and 54 trophies will be awarded to the children. The purpose of this tournament is to promote and encourage the kids and provide them the opportunity to watch the elite women players.
The junior event is being organized by the Indian Chess School & South Mumbai Chess Academy under the aegis of All India Chess Federation, All Marathi Chess Association & Mumbai Suburban District Chess Association.
Registrations are open for the All India FIDE Rating event and those interested can log on to www.indianchessschool.com to register their names and confirm their participation.
For more details, contact Praful Zaveri on 9820547548 or Durga
Nagesh Guttula on 9702224442 or 7977959509.