WARSAW: Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa will be the cynosure of all eyes as he takes on a strong field sans Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the Superbet Rapid and blitz tournament, a part of the grand chess tour, that gets under way here on Saturday.
With Aravindh Chithambaram as company, Praggnanandhaa is one of the front-runners for the title as the absence of Carlsen after two winning triumphs has thrown the field wide open.
Alireza Firouzja, the Iranian-turned-French, starts as the hot bubble waiting to be busted while his compatriot Maxime Vachier-Lagrave would like to live on the legacy built for the French players in the last decade.
While there are only two Indian contestants among the ten players, it remains to be seen who will win the Grand Chess Tour this year — a series of events that award points based on each performance. For the records, the total prize pool of the event is 175000 USD with an added attraction of being part of the grand prize at the end of the season.
The absence of Carlsen stems from his own admission that the classical format no longer excites him. Praggnanandhaa will be the one to watch out for given his accuracy in speed chess that has scalps including that of Carlsen on a few occasions.