Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 8: Senior National Open Chess Championship 2018 got underway today at Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust, Channi Himmat, here.
162 players from 27 States and 8 special units are participating in the Championship.
The participants include 19 grand masters and 20 International masters and some Arjuna awardee players.
This is also a Asian Zonal 3.7 event as India is a separate Zone in Asia. Total prizes of Rs 20 lakh will be distributed among the top 10 players.
The first prize will be Rs 5,00,000.
Bharat Singh Chauhan, Chairman Commonwealth Chess Association and also Secretary All India Chess Federation was the chief guest on the occasion while Abdul Qyoom, Chief Sports Officer J&K Sports Council and Ravi Singh, Divisional Sports Officer were the guests of honour.
Bharat Singh Chauhan appreciated the quality arrangements by AJKCA and hoped that this event will boost the morale of youth in Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier, Atul Kumar Gupta, President AJKCA presented welcome address.
Total 13 rounds will be played. International Arbiter Dharmendra Kumar is the chief Arbiter of this event who is supported by seven Deputy Arbiters.
Prominent guests present on the occasion included Ashok Sharma, Director Sports SMVDSB, Munish Thappar, Secretary Punjab State Chess Association and All J&K Chess Association members AR Wani, Ashiq Ahmed, Baldev Raj, Taranvir Singh, Kuljeet Jamwal, Farroq Ahmad, Mohd Shafi, Khalid Amin, Raj Kumar and Vikas Nanda.
Navneet Kaur conducted proceedings of the event.
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