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| Mary Ann Gomes |
Calcutta: Grandmaster B. Adhiban is the top seed of the 50th Tata National Premier Chess Championship, organised by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy. The 14-day Fide-rated tournament begins at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, here, on Monday.
Bengal’s WGM Mary Ann Gomes will be the only woman player in the meet, which will see 48 participants.
GMs Deep Sengupta, Neelotpal Das and Dibyendu Barua, Atanu Lahiri, Diptayan Ghosh, Bitan Banerjee and Arindam Mukherjee are the other local challengers.
However missing from action will be Bengal’s GMs Sandipan Chanda and Surya Sekhar Ganguly and other top players.
Speaking at the press conference Barua said: “Surya is busy with prior commitments… Sandipan is not playing for personal reasons.”
Barua said that the top-six finishers will get a chance to represent India next year in any international tournament. “The players can also qualify for the World Cup if they do well.”
For the 14-year old Diptayan, who will be playing in his second National championship, it will be a chance to get his first GM norm.
“I’m going to try for my first GM norm… I’m an improved player now. So, I want to give my best.”
The championship will be of 13 rounds and will be played under the Swiss system.
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