Harikrishna braces up for Shakmir Chess 2017

Shakmir (Azerbaijan), April 20: Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna is all set to take on the best in the world at the prestigious Shakmir Chess 2017 tournament, starting here from Friday.

The tournament, dedicated to the memory of late Azerbaijan Grandmaster Vugar Gashimov, is an invitational tournament and has over the years attracted the creme de la creme from the world of chess. 

Ranked 14th in the world, Harikrishna will be raring to go up against the elite playing field spearheaded by World No.2 American Wesley So. 

The 10-man round-robin tournament, which offers total prize money of 100,000 euros ($1,07,628), will also see the Russian pair of World No.4 Vladimir Kramnik and World No.8 Sergwey Karjakin in action as well. A whopping 25,000 euros ($26,907) will go to the winner. 

The other players in the fray are Shakriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Michael Adams (England), Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine), Radoslaw Wojtasek (Poland), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan).

The tournament will be played at a time control of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then each player will be allotted 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.

A tie-break match will be played in case of a tie for first place.