Magnus Carlsen returns to Kolkata after almost five years at Tata Steel India Rapid and Blitz 2024
Tata Steel Chess India is the strongest and biggest Rapid and Blitz tournament to take place in India. For the first time, Men's and Women's events will take place simultaneously at the same time. Just like the last two years, both men and women's section will have equal prize fund of US$ 41500. The five-day Rapid and Blitz tournament will feature 20 of the world's best including the World no.1 - Magnus Carlsen who returned to Kolkata after almost five years. The remaining players are: Men - Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), Wesley So (USA), Arjun Erigaisi, Daniil Dubov, Nihal Sarin, R Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, Vincent Keymer and S L Narayanan. Women - GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI), GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, GM Koneru Humpy, GM Kateryna Lagno, GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO), GM Harika Dronavalli, IM Divya Deshmukh, GM Valentina Gunina, GM R Vaishali and IM Vantika Agrawal. Round 1 starts tomorrow at 2 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed
For the third consecutive year, Men and Women's event to have equal prize fund
The sixth edition of India's strongest and biggest Rapid and Blitz tournament has a star-studded lineup. Men's section has four former World Champions, Women's also have four, Aleksandra Goryachkina is the reigning World Cup Women winner and Divya Deshmukh is the only defending champion of the 2023 edition. Who will be crowned the four champions this Sunday?
Players in Men
The Men section will be headlined by the World no.1 and Tata Steel Chess India 2019 Rapid and Blitz winner - Magnus Carlsen (NOR). He will be joined by the world no.4, Tata Steel India Rapid 2021 and Blitz 2022 winner - Arjun Erigaisi, World no.6 and World Rapid 2021 champion - Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), World no.11 and first official World Fischer Random champion - Wesley So (USA), World no. 15 and 45th Olympiad Gold medalist - Vidit Gujrathi, World no.18 and 45th Olympiad Gold medalist - R Praggnanandhaa, World no.21 and Germany no.1 - Vincent Keymer, World Rapid 2018 champion - Daniil Dubov, Tata Steel India Rapid 2022 winner - Nihal Sarin and India no.11 - S L Narayanan.
Players in Women
World no.5 and World Rapid Women 2019 champion - GM Koneru Humpy, World no.6 and FIDE World Cup Women 2023 winner - GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, World no.7, World Rapid and three-time World Blitz Women champion - GM Kateryna Lagno, World no.8 and 38th Olympiad Gold medalist - GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO), World no.13, 45th Olympiad Gold medalist and the defending Tata Steel India 2023 Rapid champion - IM Divya Deshmukh, World no.14 and 45th Olympiad Gold medalist - GM Harika Dronavalli, World no.16 and 45th Olympiad Gold medalist - GM R Vaishali, World no.18 and the twelfth Women's World Champion - GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI), reigning World Blitz champion - GM Valentina Gunina and 45th Olympiad Gold medalist - IM Vantika Agrawal.
Photo Gallery
Fun fact: GM Dibyendu Barua drew four players names and all of them are either present or former World Champions - GM Valentina Gunina (World Blitz Women), GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (World Women's Classical), GM Wesley So (World Fischer Random) and GM Daniil Dubov (World Rapid).
A guest would randomly pick up a scarf which has the name of the player. The player then comes down the stage and bursts the balloon of their choice with the provided pin. When the balloon was burst, it would reveal the seeding number for the player. Nihal's number flew away in a random direction, none could find it and his number was determined by the process of elimination, once all balloons were burst. Well that's a first.
For more photos, please click here: Men and Women. If you are still eagerly waiting to watch moments and highlights of Draw of Lots, stay tuned. They will be published soon.
Video gallery
Format
There will be two tournaments: a men's and a women's event. The tournaments will be played in two formats - Rapid and Blitz. For the first time, both Men's and Women's event will take place simultaneously. Three rounds of Rapid games will be played on the first three days, followed by nine rounds of Blitz per day on the remaining two days of each event. The time control is 25 minutes for the entire game with an increment of 10 seconds from move no.1. For Blitz, the time control is 3 minutes with an increment of 2 seconds from move no.1.
Venue
Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata, West Bengal. The tournament is open to spectators. Tickets will not be sold; passes will be available at the venue on first-come-first-serve basis on the days of the tournament.
Rapid Round 1-3 Open pairings
| Round 1 | ||||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2579 | GM | Narayanan, S L | GM | Keymer, Vincent | 2642 | 10 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 2735 | GM | So, Wesley | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2661 | 9 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 2706 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | GM | Nihal, Sarin | 2679 | 8 | ||
| 4 | 4 | 2825 | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2676 | 7 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 2686 | GM | Dubov, Daniil | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2742 | 6 | ||
| Round 2 | ||||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||
| 1 | 10 | 2642 | GM | Keymer, Vincent | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2742 | 6 | ||
| 2 | 7 | 2676 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | GM | Dubov, Daniil | 2686 | 5 | ||
| 3 | 8 | 2679 | GM | Nihal, Sarin | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | 2825 | 4 | ||
| 4 | 9 | 2661 | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2706 | 3 | ||
| 5 | 1 | 2579 | GM | Narayanan, S L | GM | So, Wesley | 2735 | 2 | ||
| Round 3 | ||||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||
| 1 | 2 | 2735 | GM | So, Wesley | GM | Keymer, Vincent | 2642 | 10 | ||
| 2 | 3 | 2706 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | GM | Narayanan, S L | 2579 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 4 | 2825 | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2661 | 9 | ||
| 4 | 5 | 2686 | GM | Dubov, Daniil | GM | Nihal, Sarin | 2679 | 8 | ||
| 5 | 6 | 2742 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2676 | 7 | ||
Rapid Round 1-3 Women pairings
| Round 1 on 2024/11/13 at 1400 h | ||||||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2427 | GM | Dzagnidze, Nana | GM | Dronavalli, Harika | 2416 | 10 | ||||
| 2 | 2 | 2472 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | GM | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | 2508 | 9 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 2314 | IM | Vantika, Agrawal | GM | Gunina, Valentina | 2384 | 8 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 2359 | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | IM | Divya, Deshmukh | 2401 | 7 | ||||
| 5 | 5 | 2436 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | GM | Koneru, Humpy | 2451 | 6 | ||||
| Round 2 on 2024/11/13 at 1530 h | ||||||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
| 1 | 10 | 2416 | GM | Dronavalli, Harika | GM | Koneru, Humpy | 2451 | 6 | ||||
| 2 | 7 | 2401 | IM | Divya, Deshmukh | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | 2436 | 5 | ||||
| 3 | 8 | 2384 | GM | Gunina, Valentina | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | 2359 | 4 | ||||
| 4 | 9 | 2508 | GM | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | IM | Vantika, Agrawal | 2314 | 3 | ||||
| 5 | 1 | 2427 | GM | Dzagnidze, Nana | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | 2472 | 2 | ||||
| Round 3 on 2024/11/13 at 1700 h | ||||||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 2472 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | GM | Dronavalli, Harika | 2416 | 10 | ||||
| 2 | 3 | 2314 | IM | Vantika, Agrawal | GM | Dzagnidze, Nana | 2427 | 1 | ||||
| 3 | 4 | 2359 | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | GM | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | 2508 | 9 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 2436 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | GM | Gunina, Valentina | 2384 | 8 | ||||
| 5 | 6 | 2451 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | IM | Divya, Deshmukh | 2401 | 7 | ||||
Schedule
Everyday round starts at 2 p.m. IST. The Rapid event will take place from 13th to 15th November, followed by the Blitz event on 16th and 17th November.
Prize
The total prize fund remains the same as the previous two editions - US$ 41500. The top three prizes in the Rapid are - $10000, $6000 and $3000. For Blitz they are - $7500, $4000 and $2500. Most importantly, the prizes remain equal in both Open and Womens events.
Links
|
Tata Steel Women Rapid R1-3: Vantika Agrawal in a three-way lead
@ 13/11/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
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Tata Steel Rapid R1-3: Abdusattorov gains early sole lead, S L Narayanan makes a great start
@ 13/11/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |