In the absence of any quality opposition from overseas challengers, India appears set to make a clean sweep of medals in all 16 categories in the Commonwealth chess championship beginning in New Delhi on Sunday.
Top seed and a four-time winner Abhijeet Gupta will be looking to add to his tally. Ranked joint-ninth in the country, Abhijeet expects serious challenge from, among others S. L. Narayanan, National champion Aravindh Chithambaram, former champion M. R. Lalit Babu and several other Indian Grandmasters.
In a rare instance, the event features more GMs (12) and International Masters (11). In fact, two of the IMs, P. Iniyan and Swayams Mishra are awaiting confirmation of their GM titles. In all, there are 614 entries across all categories.
Among the leading ladies, Divya Deshmukh, 14, is the rating favourite, ahead of defending champion Tania Sachdev and fellow former Asian women champion Bhakti Kulkarni.
Divya, winner of two world (under-10 and under-12) titles, took her rating from 2127 to 2432 in just two months earlier this year, mainly after gaining whopping 139 rating points on way to winning an international round-robin women event in Chennai. But this week, Divya is expected to find the going very tough when competing with the seniors.
Women players play in the Open section and the best three finishers make it to the podium. In all other categories, competitions are held separately in open and girls sections.
For the record, out of the 94 entries, India accounts for 83. The remaining 11 entries are from Bangladesh, Botswana, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, South Africa, Seychelles and Singapore. As usual, stronger Commonwealth nations, led by England, have stayed away.
Initially, this edition was awarded to South Africa. After South African expressed its inability to host it, Sri Lanka was the likely host. But once Sri Lanka opted out, India took the responsibility. As a result, for the third year in succession, Hotel Leela Ambiance plays host to the championship, that has gained the reputation of being the best organised international event in the country.
The top-10 seeding: 1. Abhijeet Gupta (2606), 2. S. L. Narayanan (2603), 3. Aravindh Chithambaram (2598), 4. M. R. Lalit Babu (2571), 5. Deepan Chakkravarthy (2557), 6. Arjun Erigaisi (2526), 7. P. Iniyan (2525), 8. Swayams Mishra (2493), 9. Swapnil Dhopade (2488), 10. C. R.G. Krishna (2481).
Women (top-five): 1. Divya Deshmukh (2414), 2. Tania Sachdev (2401), 3. Bhakti Kulkarni (2380), 4. R. Vaishali (2338), 5. M. Mahalakshmi (2245).
