Fourth seed Arjun Erigaisi will head a very strong 14-member Indian presence in the $60,000 Sharjah Masters chess that started on Saturday.
Russian Vladimir Fedoseev, playing under the FIDE flag, is the top seed, followed by Armenia’s Gabriel Sargissian and UAE’s Salem Saleh in the race for the winner’s share of $10,000.
Following the in-form Arjun are compatriots S.L. Narayanan, D. Gukesh, Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani, B. Adhiban — all members of India’s 2022 Chess Olympiad teams. Of the 14 Indians, except Sankalp Gupta and International Master Aditya Mittal, all GMs are rated above 2600. The field is limited to 80 players, the rating eligibility being 2300.
Going by live ratings, Arjun is ranked 58th with a rating of 2680.6 while Gukesh is 68th, his rating being 2674.6. Among the top-100, the other two Indians are the 81st-ranked Narayanan (2662) and 94th-placed Nihal Sarin (2653.5). This nine-round competition carries added significance since it forms part of the preparatory events short-listed by the members of the Indian Olympiad teams.
Indian participants (as per starting rank and rating): 4. Arjun Erigaisi (2675), 7. S.L. Narayanan (2662), 9. D. Gukesh (2659), 14. Nihal Sarin (2646), 27. Raunak Sadhwani (2619), 28. B. Adhiban (2616), 29. Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2616), 32. S.P. Sethuraman (2613), 33. Aryan Chopra (2609), 35. Abhimanyu Puranik (2608), 37. Aravindh Chithambaram (2606), 38. Abhijeet Gupta (2606), 54. Sankalp Gupta (2505), 55. Aditya Mittal (2490).
