Commonwealth chess championship from November 20

Mumbai, Nov 18 (UNI) The Commonwealth Chess Championship 2006 will be held at the Eskay Resorts in Borivali here from November 20 to 29.

The event has been organised by the Venus Chess Academy under the auspices of the Maharashtra Chess Association, it was informed at a news conference here today.

It was further informed that the tournament would be held on a Swiss basis for a total of 10 rounds with a record prize fund of US Dollars 14,000 dollars. A total of 160 particpants headed by GM Nigel Short would vie for top honours.

Top Indian players, including GMs Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda, Abhijit Kunte, Deepan Chakravarty, R B Ramesh and Neelotpal Das, will give the defending champion Nigel Short a run for his money.

Short, who is the President of the Commonwealth Chess Association, while speaking at the conference, admitted that the field was not that strong.

''The reason for this was that a lot of countries coming under the Commonwealth were not that rich to send their players. Also, another problem was that the Asian Games are too close to this tournament and, therefore, unfortunately we have lost the top Indian players,'' he said, adding that despite this, he was expecting keen competition in the championship.

The tournament, sponsored by LIC, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), will see the men's winner get 2,500 dollars, while the runner-up will get 1,500 dollars.

The women's winner will be richer by 500 dollars, while the runner-up will get 300 dollars.

The tournament will be held in the men's, women's, Boys under-10, u-18, u-16, u-14, u-12 and u-10; girls under-20, u-18, u-16, u-14, u-12, u-10; Over 60 and amateur categories.

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