World chess champion Magnus Carlsen (third from left) poses with officials ahead of the Qatar Masters Open chess tournament.
By Yash Mudgal/Doha
With a star studded field taking part and $130,000 up for grabs, the Qatar Masters Open chess tournament beginning today at Aspire will be the strongest and richest ‘open’ event in the sport.
Reigning world champion and world No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who is taking part in an open tournament for the first time in eight years, is undoubtedly the top draw in Qatar.
The 24-year-old Norwegian will be matching wits with Vladimir Kramnik, Anish Giri, Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin in the event over nine mentally gruelling rounds.
The last time Carlsen played in an open tournament was in August 2007 as a 16-year-old top seed at the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromso.
“We’re very happy to have Carlsen. To have Carlsen in Qatar is a big thing and this has further reinforced the fact that this year’s championship is the strongest ever in the history of open chess tournaments,” Qatar Chess Association (QCA) president Khalifa Mohamad al-Hitmi said yesterday.
“This is the first time in history that a current world champion will be participating in an open tournament. They don’t usually play in this type of championships as they prefer the club competitions and the world championships,” he added.
Carlsen had defeated India’s Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship in November 2013, thus becoming the new world champion. In the May 2014 FIDE rating list, Carlsen reached his top ELO rating of 2882, the highest in history. He successfully defended his title in November 2014, once again defeating Anand.
Though Carlsen will be playing in Qatar for the first time, he has been here previously on two occasions. He camped in Doha for two weeks on his way to the last World Chess Championship.
Talking about the tournament, QCF secretary and tournament director Mohamad al-Medaikhi said: “The idea of organising the tournament is to spread the game’s popularity in Qatar and make it a chess destination in the Gulf region.”
“We’ve added one rest day to the tournament unlike last year which was played at a stretch for nine days,” he said.
The winner will get $27,000 while the second and third placed will receive $16,000 and $12,000, respectively. The best woman player will get $8,000 and the best Arab player will receive $2,500.
Among women, Georgia’s Bela Khotenashvili (Elo 2,496), the highest-placed player in last year’s competition, will try to improve her show. China’s former world champion Hou Yifan (2,683), who is also the world No.1, India’s Koneru Humpy (Elo 2,583), the world’s second highest-rated woman, and Russia’s former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (Elo 2,542) can cause big upsets.
GM Mohamed al-Sayed (Elo 2,520) and International Master Husain Aziz Nezad (Elo 2,425) will represent the hosts. But given the strong field, the best the Qatari duo can hope for is to earn some valuable points.
Chinese GM Yu Yanyi defeated pre-tournament favourite Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to lift the championship trophy last year.
