CHENNAI: D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and P Harikrishna will lead the Indian challenge at the Chennai Grand Masters 2023. The Classical Super tournament, announced on Monday, will be the country’s strongest ever and it will give the likes of Gukesh and Erigaisi an opportunity to qualify for the Candidates.
Apart from the three Indians, the meet will see Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo, US’ Levon Aronian, Ukraine’s Pavel Eljanov, Serbia’s Alexander Predke and Hungary’s Sjugirov Sanan. The eight-player round-robin meet is scheduled to begin on December 15. The seven-rounds will culminate with the last round on December 21. The event carries a total purse of `50 lakh, with the winner earning Rs 15 lakh.
The tournament is being sponsored by the Tamil Nadu government. GM Srinath Narayanan is also being involved in the event. “I am really proud of this moment, having the strongest classical tournament in India,” he said in a statement available on the chessbase India website.
“As an individual or organisation, doing something we have never done before is always a challenge. In that sense, for us, this is a breakthrough moment, and a dream come true moment. We have close to 10 top players in India right now, apart from several top talents waiting in the wings.”
