Chess: Arjun Erigesi gets seeding in Sharjah Masters, 19 Indians in field

Grandmaster and world number seven Erigesi Arjun will lead the Indian challenge as the top seed in the Sharjah Masters chess tournament. 19 Indian Grandmasters will participate in the Sharjah Masters, one of the toughest open tournaments in the world. SL Narayanan is the second highest rated player from India followed by Nihal Sarin. The winner of this nine-round tournament will get 12 thousand dollars.

Arjun was fifth in the Rapid and Blitz tournament
Arjun has come here directly from Warsaw where he secured fifth place in the Superbet Rapid and Blitz tournament. Players in the top 10 generally do not play in open tournaments. The reason for top players to avoid competing in open tournaments is the big risk to their rating but Arjun is setting new standards by collecting points from open tournaments. Nine players above 2700 ELO rating are in the fray in the tournament. Arjun is 29 points ahead of second seed Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran

Indians dominate Dubai Police Challenge

This tournament has been organized just after the Dubai Police Global Chess Challenge in which Indians dominated. V Pranav was the winner and got 16,500 US dollars. For the first time in an international open tournament of this level, the top three prizes were won by Indians. Arvind Chidambaram was second and M Pranesh was third. Chidambaram is a two-time national champion and is constantly progressing. This Chennai player has made it to the top-50 of the world rankings for the first time in his career.

Nihal Sarin expected to perform well

Nihal Sarin was embroiled in controversy when his impressive results in online blitz games led to Russian great Vladimir Kramnik indirectly accusing him of online cheating. Sarin is also expected to perform well in this tournament. Abhijeet Gupta is a former world junior champion and has won tournaments in different continents. He can prove to be a dangerous opponent for many but lack of consistency in performance in the last few years has been a problem for him. A total of 88 players are participating in the tournament, of which 19 are Indians.