THE top five seeded players won their first round games in the International FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament (classical format), part of GH Raisoni Chess Festival that got under way on Sunday. Thefestival,consistingofclassical, rapid and blitz fide rating chess events,wasinaugurated at thehandsofAtulKumarRastogi, IRS, Principal Commissioner of Central GST, Nagpur at GH Raisoni Institute of Information andTechnology, ShraddhaPark, Wadi Hingna Link Road on Sunday. The tournament is being organised by GH Raisoni Sports and Cultural Foundation jointly with Kalpana PrakashWelfare Foundation andisrecognisedby the Chess Association Nagpur, MaharashtraChessAssociation, All India Chess Federation and FIDE.

 

CA Milind Kanade, EminentEconomist,spokesperson and president of Economic Cell of Maharashtra BJP was the guestofhonour.DrVivekKapoor, Director,RaisoniGrouppresided over the function. Bhushan Shriwas, Organising Secretary & Secretary CAN and IA Ajinkya Pingale were prominently present on the occasion. SS Soman, Member, MCA Observer Committee conducted the programme and proposed a vote of thanks. Thefirsteventis International FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament to be played fromJune 8-13 which is the classical event. The event shall be played in 11 rounds and has attracted 255 entries which includes 114 FIDE-rated players vying forthe top prize of Rs 51000. The total prize fund for all three events is Rs 4,51,000. There are 48 female participants and 25 veteran participants in the event. The players of various age categories from 5 to 79 are participating in the event.