Chess: Abhijeet Gupta to spearhead Indian challenge

Grand Master Abhijeet Gupta will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Grand Europe Albena Chess tournament that gets underway here.

With as many as 28 Grand Masters registered for the 30,000 Euros prize money tournament, it will be a tough challenge for Abhijeet, who starts as the seventh seed in the event.

M Shyam Sundar is the other Indian Grand Master in fray along with three GMs-in-waiting, V Vishnu Prasanna, Swapnil Dhopade and Ashwin Jayaram.

The 170-player tournament will have nine rounds in all and the games will be played with 90 minutes for both players for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes each to finish the game.

As is standard practice, an increment of 30 seconds in the clock will be added after each move is made.

The major Black Sea resort in northeastern Bulgaria will have Constantine Luplescu of Romania as the top seed and he is likely to face a tough challenge from the Armenian trio of Tigran Petrosian, Avetik Grigoryan and Hrant Melkumyan.