GM Viswanathan Anand to play in Tata Steel Chess at Kolkata

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will be once again competing on home soil at the upcoming Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Blitz tournament to be held in Kolkata from November 9-14.

The USD 40,000 prize money tournament features three top players in the Elo +2800 rating, which include Azerbaijan GM and world number three Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Armenian GM and world number six Levon Aronian, USA’s GM Wesley So who is world number 9, American GM and four-time United States champion Hikaru Nakamura who is world number 14 and Russian GM Sergey Karjakin (world number 15).

Apart from the Indian chess wizard, the Indian GMs include P Harikrishna, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Vidit Gujarati, Nihal Sarin, R. Praggnanandhaa as a total of 11 top-ranked players will compete in the meet at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

The participants will play a single round robin (all play all) rapid tournament from November 9-11 followed by a double round robin blitz on the last two days.

GM Viswanathan Anand, Reigning World Rapid Champion, Mr Sunil Bhaskaran, Vice president of Tata Steel, Mr D.V. Sundar, Vice-President of FIDE, and Mr Bharat Singh Chauhan, Hon’ble Secretary of AICF attended the press-meet.