Chennai Grand Masters 2024 to be held from November 5 to 11

The tournament has also added a Challengers section. The winner in this section will qualify for the Masters section for next year’s tournament.

FILE PHOTO: Arjun Erigaisi is the top seed in Masters section at Chennai Grand Masters 2024, which will be held from November 5 to 11. | Photo Credit: FIDE

The second edition of the Chennai Grand Masters will be held in the city from November 5 to November 11.

With an official average rating of 2711 Elo, the inaugural edition held last year is the strongest tournament of classical chess held on Indian soil.

Last year, D. Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi were tied for the top spot but the former triumphed due to better tiebreaks record. The result helped Gukesh gain crucial FIDE circuit points and make the cut for the FIDE Candidates tournament where he turned out to be the eventual champion. Gukesh will challenge China’s Ding Liren for the World Championship, which will be held in Singapore from November 23 to December 15.

The average rating for the upcoming edition, which will have seven rounds of classical chess, is 2729.

Apart from World No. 3 Arjun, who recently won the WR Chess Masters Cup, the Masters section this year will feature Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier Lagrave, Vidit Gujrathi, Parham Maghsoodloo, Alexey Sarana, Amin Tabatabaei and Aravindh Chithambaram.

The tournament has also added a Challengers section. The winner in this section will qualify for the Masters section for next year’s tournament.

The Challengers section, with an average rating of 2589, has Raunak Sadhwani, Abhimanyu Puranik, Karthikeyan Murali, Leon Mendonca, Pranav V., Pranesh M., Harika Dronavalli, and R. Vaishali as participants.

The total prize money for the Masters section is Rs 50 lakh, while for the challengers, it is Rs 20 lakh.