DHNS

Mangalore, Jun 17: South Kanara District Chess Association (SKDCA) will host Second Mangalore All India Open Fide Rated Chess Tournament-2008 at Radhakrishna Temple premises, G T Road in the City from July 19 to 26.

Informing this to media here on Saturday, Association President M S Gururaj said around 400 chess players from across 21 states in the country including grandmasters, international chess masters, top Fide rated players are expected to participate in the tourney.

The tournament will be inaugurated at 11 am on July 19 and the first round will begin in the afternoon. Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Dr D Veerendra Heggade and Commissioner of Youth Affairs and Sports Mr Pandey are expected to take part in the inaugural, he informed.

There will be 11 rounds with two hours each. The tourney will be conducted as the latest Fide rules, he added.
Mr Gururaj said the tournament would feature a total prize amount of Rs 2.5 lakh, which will be shared by as many as 60 winners. There will be two special prizes each for the ‘promising talents’ of Karnataka as well as Dakshina Kannada.

Noted chess players like Grandmaster Praveen Tipsey, Bhagyashree Tipsey, Sudhakar Babu, Saptharshi Roy, Konguvel, Thejkumar, Verghese Koshi, Nimmy George, Harshal Sahi, Himamshu Sharma, D V Prasad and others will be participating in the event.

There will be no entry fee and accommodation charges for Grandmasters, International masters, current national/Asian/world title holders in different age groups and for the players having rating above 2400.

Concessions will be given in entry fee for the players from Karnataka and DK, he said.

June 30 will be the last date for confirming the entry. For details one may contact: 9845032598 or 9845948625. SKDCA Honourary President M R Vasudev, Secretary S L D’Cunha and Treasurer Vasanthalakshmi were present in the press meet.