Arjun Erigaisi has been seeded 12th in the blitz and D. Harika enjoys the fourth spot among women’s list of seeding for the rapid section in the World rapid and blitz chess championship that begins in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Monday.
Though Magnus Carlsen is back in search of an eighth gold medal from the championship and looking to add to his overall collection of 12 medals since 2012, the large Indian presence adds to the interest.
Koneru Humpy, a former champion, and Harika are back to play for India after the Chess Olympiad in Mahabalipuram, while the highly skilful teenagers Arjun and Nihal Sarin can be expected to play above their seedings.
After 13 rounds of rapid games in three days, the two-day 13-round blitz segment will open on December 30.
Top-five seeds (and Indians):
Open:
Rapid: 1. Magnus Carlsen (Nor), 2. Richard Rapport (Rou), 3. Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 4. Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol), 5. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra), 22. Vidit Gujrathi, 26. Surya Shekhar Ganguly, 27. P. Harikrishna, 38. Arjun Erigaisi, 39. Nihal Sarin, 49. S. L. Narayanan, 62. Aravindh Chithambaram, 64. Harsha Bharathakoti, 76. Abhimanyu Puranik, 81. B. Adhiban, 88. Raunak Sadhwani, 100. N. Srinath, 133. V. Pranav, 134. Arjun Kalyan, 143. Sankalp Gupta.
Blitz: 1. Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 2. Fabiano Caruana (USA), 3. Magnus Carlsen (Nor), 4. Yu Yangyi (Chn), 5. Vladislav Artemiev (FIDE), 12. Arjun, 19. Nihal, 24. Vidit, 30. Raunak, 46. Harikrishna, 50. Adhiban, 68. Aravindh, 89. Narayanan, 104. Ganguly, 108. Harsha, 115. Puranik, 127. Srinath, 129. Pranav, 132. Sankalp.
Women:
Rapid: 1. Alexandra Kosteniuk (FIDE), 2. Kateryna Lagno (FIDE), 3. Tan Zhongyi (Chn), 4. Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE), 5. Nana Dzagnidze (Geo), 6. D. Harika, 7. K. Humpy, 32. Tania Sachdev, 36. B. Savitha Shri, 39. Padmini Rout, 52. Divya Despande.
Blitz: 1. Kateryna Lagno (FIDE), 2. Tan Zhongyi, 3. Aleksandra Goryachkina, 4. Humpy, 5. Alexandra Kosteniuk (FIDE), 10. Harika, 27. Divya, 30. Savitha, 32. Tania, 37. Padmini.
