Abu Dhabi champion Arjun Erigaisi and Magnus Carlsen-conqueror R. Praggnanandhaa amongst early favourites
Rising Indian star Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. (Fide Olympiad)
Two of the most popular younger gamers within the worldwide chess circuit look to proceed their spectacular kind as they begin 9 gruelling rounds of classical chess motion within the twenty second Dubai Open Chess Match on Saturday on the Dubai Chess and Tradition Membership.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, contemporary from a giant-killing spree within the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami the place he introduced down world champion Magnus Carlsen in a dramatic final-round encounter final Sunday, and Arjun Erigaisi, who solely two days in the past bested a area of 43 topflight grandmasters and over 100 different titled gamers to rule the twenty eighth Abu Dhabi Worldwide Chess Competition, have emerged early favourites to reign in Dubai.
Praggnanandhaa, who turned 17 this month, and Erigaisi, who will rejoice his nineteenth birthday through the penultimate spherical of the Dubai match on September 3, additionally come off a profitable marketing campaign on the Fide World Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India. Praggnanandhaa, enjoying third board for India 2, picked up crew and particular person bronze medals, whereas Erigaisi gained silver on third board and was the very best scorer for fourth-placer India 1.
The teenage grandmasters (GM) can be up towards one of many hardest fields within the Dubai match’s historical past, the place nearly your entire Indian crew that gained the bronze medal through the Olympiad, as effectively gamers from Olympiad champions Uzbekistan and runners-up Armenia, can be competing.
Members of the Indian and Uzbekistan Olympiad groups, each principally powered by chess prodigies barely out of highschool, are presently the toast of the chess world following their sensational efficiency on the Chennai Olympiad, placing them straight within the crosshairs of the greater than 100 titled gamers, together with 35 grandmasters, chasing for the title in Dubai.
Praggnanandhaa can be joined by Olympiad teammates GM Nihal Sarin, 18, GM Raunak Sadhwani, 16, and GM Adhiban Baskaran, 30.
GM Dommaraju Gukesh, 16, the largest revelation of this 12 months’s Olympiad having bagged the gold medal on first board forward of Carlsen, is not going to be competing in Dubai. Gukesh is presently enjoying within the Turkish Chess League, though his identify was earlier listed among the many match contributors. Additionally enjoying in Dubai are GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov, who performed fifth board for Uzbekistan in Chennai, and GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, who manned the third board for Armenia.
The Olympiad medallists will face stiff competitors towards a area of greater than 170 gamers from 35 nations, led by this 12 months’s highest-rated participant GM Alexandr Predke of Russia, who has a world score of 2692.
Two former champions are additionally vying for a second serving of the coveted chess crown — 1999 inaugural winner GM Vladimir Akopian, a former Armenian champion now enjoying for the USA, and 2011 champion GM Abhijeet Gupta of India.
The Dubai Open, again after a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic, dangles a complete prize fund of $50,000, with $13,000 going to the champion. Video games are performed every single day from 5pm.