DM Deep Sengupta star attraction of India Chess for Youth

Kolkata: Newly crowned Grandmaster Deep Sengupta will be the star attraction in the fifth edition of the Tea Board of India Chess For Youth Tournament to be held at Netaji Indoor Stadium here from September 2-5.

The top-seeded Sengupta will be eyeing for a hattrick of titles as he will vie for top honours against last year’s national women’s champion WGM Kruttika Nadig, former Asian Junior women’s champion WGM Mary Ann Gomes, former u-12 world champion Vidit Gujarati among others. Having earned his first GM norm in Gurgaon International Open Tournament in January 2009, Sengupta earned his third and final GM norm this year after finishing joint first with Tigran Gharamian and Vadim Malakhatko in the Cannes Festival earlier this year in France.Sengupta thus became fifth from Bengal to earn the GM title. The event is held in two sections -- Premier and Junior sections in the four-day meet which will see about 450 players in action, the organisers said. According to the organisers, World Cup winning India captain Kapil Dev will inaugurate the tournament while Union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will give away the prizes after the final round. The Rs 51,000 prize money premier section will be of an all India level for players below 25 years of age, while the junior section will only be for the local players and is divided into five age group categories (U-8, 10, 12, 14 and 16). The tournament is jointly organised by the Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and Allsport Management and will be played under one-hour rapid chess format with seven rounds in the Swiss League System. PTI