157 Players, 10 Nations, One Chess Crown: Mumbai Ready for Asian Junior Battle

A strong field of 157 players from 10 countries, including six International Masters (IMs) and 24 FIDE Masters and Women FIDE Masters, will compete in the Asian Junior Open and Girls Chess Championship in Mumbai from August 16 to 26.

The tournament, which brings together some of Asia’s leading under-20 chess talent, will feature nine rounds of Classical Swiss, followed by seven rounds each of Rapid and Blitz. The event is being conducted under the aegis of the All India Chess Federation, Asian Chess Federation and FIDE, and hosted by the Maharashtra Chess Association.

The championship has previously produced several prominent players, with Viswanathan Anand, Abhijit Kunte and Tejas Bakre winning the open title, while Tania Sachdev, Koneru Humpy and Ivana Furtado have been among the past women’s champions.

The winners will have an opportunity to earn a Grandmaster norm if they are already IMs, while non-IMs will be eligible for an International Master norm.

The Classical section has 157 entries, compared with 153 in Rapid and 151 in Blitz. The open section has an average Elo rating of 2054, while the junior women’s section averages 1885.

India’s IM Mayank Chakraborty (2500) heads the open field, followed by Russia’s IM Artem Pingin (2477) and India’s IM Apporv Kamble (2441). Other leading Indian contenders include Vignesh Advaith Vemula (2405), Aaditya Dhingra (2403) and Akshay Borgaonkar (2396).

In the junior women’s section, India’s WFM Pratitee Bordoloi (2252) is the top seed, ahead of Kazakhstan’s WFA Mariya Kholyavko (2217) and Turkmenistan’s WFM Lala Shohradova (2159). WFM Swara Lakshmi Nair (2155), Mrittika Mallick (2153) and Saranya Devi Narahari are also among the leading Indian contenders.