New Delhi: The 10th edition of prestigious Parsvnath International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament gets underway here at Ludlow Castle Sports Complex, Civil Lines from Saturday.

The event will see 20 Grandmasters and 32 International Masters in action in a field of around 300 players from more than 14 countries.  Indian Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda will start as the rating favourite while Belarusian Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov and Ukrainian Grandmaster Kravtsiv Martyn have got the second and third seed respectively in this eleven round Swiss system tournament.   The total prize fund of the event is Rupees 15 lakhs out of which Rs. 3 lakhs is reserved for the winner.

The event at the start of the New Year, every year now, attracts big stars from across the world and this time, Grandmaster duo from Russia, Mikhail Ulibin and Andrei Deviatkin along with Oliver Barbosa of Philippines amongst those will be eying the winner’s purse apart from the top seeds.

Ajay Maken, Hon’ble Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports will inaugurate the event at 1800 hrs on Saturday.

The Parsvnath group has been sponsoring this tournament for the ninth time running. The real estate majors are involved in almost all chess activities in the National Capital and it is because Pradip Jain has taken a stand to promote the game.