Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna will begin as one of the favourites in the prestigious Shenzhen Longgang Chess Grand Master tournament that gets under way here in Shenzhen on Thursday.
Harikrishna, who is currently ranked World No. 14 had broken into the Top 10 recently, and will fancy his chances in the pool led by World No. 11 Anish Giri from Netherlands.
“This is an important tournament for me,” Harikrishna said, as he embarked on Mission Shenzhen. “It’s a strong field but I was World No. 10 till just last month. This gives me a lot of confidence,” he added.
The classical time control tournament will be played in a round robin format, with each player facing off with the other twice, Apart from Giri and Harikrishna, four other players will be in fray: Michael Adams from England (World No.12), the Chinese duo of Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi (World No. 12 & 13 respectively) and Peter Svidler of Russia (World No. 20).
The tournament offers a total prize money of $90,000, with the winner taking home a cool $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.