Tata Steel Chess India: Viswanathan Anand faces Wesley So in opening round

Photo: IANS

Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand will face USA’s Wesley So in the 1st round of the Tata Steel Chess India 2018 championship, being organized by Tata Steel under the aegis of All India Chess Federation and West Bengal Chess Association.

The tournament from November 9-14 at Indian Council for Cultural Relations comprise Rapid as well as Blitz competitions where the participants will play a single round-robin (all play all).

Besides former world champion Viswanathan Anand, and World no.10 Wesley So, an elite field of participants including Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Levon Aronian from Armenia, Sergey Karjakin from Russia, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan are in the fray. India’s top-rated Pentala Harikrishna, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Vidit Gujarathi will also be seen in action. Nihal Sarin, World no-1 in U-14, will play the rapid leg of the event while Praggnanandhaa R., world’s third youngest grandmaster, will replace Nihal in the Blitz event.

The total prize money in the two events is US$ 40,000 with first prizes of US$, 10,000 and US$ 7,500 in the Rapid and Blitz games, respectively.

Games start at 2:00 PM India time