Fujairah (UAE): Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta will spearhead the Indian challenge in the Fujairah International chess tournament that gets underway here on Tuesday. Currently ranked fourth in the country, Gupta is playing his first tournament after the Chess Olympiad where he bagged the silver medal on the fourth board playing for Team India.
The Indian has escalated himself to 2667 ELO rating points and the expectations are high despite the presence of a very strong field here. Gupta is not the lone Indian hopeful in the 50500 USD prize money tournament as multiple times national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda have it in them to make the best on their day. For the records, this will be amongst the strongest ever tournament in Asia with presence of over 20 players above 2600 rating in the fray.
Mr. Abdullah Al Barkat, Chairman of Fujairah Chess club welcomes Mr. Geoffrey Borg, Chief Executive Officer of 'Global Chess', the Marketing Arm of World Chess Federation who visited the UAE Chess Federation recently. They discussed about the rules and regulations of the Fujairah International Chess Championship. Also present were His Excellency Sheikh Saud Al Mualla, President of the UAE Chess Federation, Mr Mehdi and Mr. Tunaiji.
The Indian has escalated himself to 2667 ELO rating points and the expectations are high despite the presence of a very strong field here. Gupta is not the lone Indian hopeful in the 50500 USD prize money tournament as multiple times national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda have it in them to make the best on their day. For the records, this will be amongst the strongest ever tournament in Asia with presence of over 20 players above 2600 rating in the fray.
