The 14th edition of the Delhi International Chess Open will have over 1400 participants in three categories battling for a prize fund of Rs. 3500000 (around 50 000 euro). Starting on January 9th and continuing to January 16, the Ludlow Castle Sports complex will be bustling with chess players eager to make their moves in this 10 round Swiss event.
The biggest Indian open grew even bigger this year with the highest ever prize money offered on Indian soil in any open tournament. The premier event has drawn world class players like Boris Grachev of Russia who will start as the top seed in the ‘A’ group. Grandmaster and former Commonwealth Champion M R Lalith Babu is the top Indian player, who starts as the tenth seed. The field comprises of 21 Grandmasters and 20 International Masters of around 190 participants in Group A.
The “B” group that starts along-side the main event on Saturday has 523 participants while the ‘C’ group has close to 800 players. With entries still pouring in at the last minute, the organizers are sure to cross the 1600 mark, which is a shade more than those who participated last year.
The ‘A’ group also gives opportunities for players to get International title norms and there are ample title holders to facilitate the norms of candidates who perform well. There are more than a handful of Indian talents here vying for their respective title norms.
“This remains as good an opportunity for any chess player in our country as well as abroad as it was when we started this event. Having started with a meagre prize fund of Rs. 3.5 Lakhs in 2002, the tournament prize fund has grown ten times in fourteen editions”, said Mr. Bharat Singh Chauhan the President of Delhi Chess Association.
All the three categories are open to all participants and the registration for the ‘C’ group is open till the 12th of January 2016.
Group A Participant’s List
| No. | Name | FED | Rtg | |
| 1 | GM | Grachev Boris | RUS | 2652 |
| 2 | GM | Popov Ivan | RUS | 2650 |
| 3 | GM | David Alberto | ITA | 2597 |
| 4 | GM | Demchenko Anton | RUS | 2596 |
| 5 | GM | Solodovnichenko Yuri | UKR | 2581 |
| 6 | GM | Sivuk Vitaly | UKR | 2566 |
| 7 | GM | Mozharov Mikhail | RUS | 2559 |
| 8 | GM | Belous Vladimir | RUS | 2557 |
| 9 | GM | Tukhaev Adam | UKR | 2556 |
| 10 | GM | Lalith Babu M R | IND | 2553 |
| 11 | GM | Vaibhav Suri | IND | 2552 |
| 12 | GM | Bernadskiy Vitaliy | UKR | 2546 |
| 13 | GM | Gabrielian Artur | RUS | 2545 |
| 14 | GM | Ernst Sipke | NED | 2536 |
| 15 | GM | Esen Baris | TUR | 2530 |
| 16 | GM | Neverov Valeriy | UKR | 2506 |
| 17 | GM | Dzhumaev Marat | UZB | 2495 |
| 18 | GM | Nguyen Duc Hoa | VIE | 2494 |
| 19 | GM | Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy | VIE | 2489 |
| 20 | IM | Narayanan Srinath | IND | 2478 |
| 21 | GM | Czebe Attila | HUN | 2466 |
| 22 | IM | Das Arghyadip | IND | 2463 |
| 23 | IM | Rathnakaran K. | IND | 2457 |
| 24 | IM | Vignesh N R | IND | 2448 |
| 25 | FM | K. Praneeth Surya | IND | 2429 |
| 26 | IM | Shyaamnikhil P | IND | 2428 |
| 27 | GM | Sriram Jha | IND | 2416 |
| 28 | IM | Ramnath Bhuvanesh.R | IND | 2414 |
| 29 | IM | Das Sayantan | IND | 2411 |
| 30 | IM | Akash G | IND | 2408 |
| 31 | IM | Nitin S. | IND | 2400 |
| 32 | IM | Visakh N R | IND | 2388 |
| 33 | IM | Krishna C R G | IND | 2387 |
| 34 | IM | Himanshu Sharma | IND | 2385 |
| 35 | IM | Ravi Teja S. | IND | 2385 |
| 36 | Harsha Bharathakoti | IND | 2362 | |
| 37 | IM | Palit Somak | IND | 2357 |
| 38 | Kulkarni Rakesh | IND | 2349 | |
| 39 | FM | Thakur Akash | IND | 2341 |
| 40 | IM | Rajesh V A V | IND | 2338 |
| 41 | FM | Gajwa Ankit | IND | 2335 |
| 42 | Gusain Himal | IND | 2335 | |
| 43 | Aradhya Garg | IND | 2316 | |
| 44 | Sammed Jaykumar Shete | IND | 2307 | |
| 45 | IM | Kathmale Sameer | IND | 2306 |
| 46 | IM | Sangma Rahul | IND | 2303 |
| 47 | Pradeep Kumar R A | IND | 2302 | |
| 48 | Sahoo Utkal Ranjan | IND | 2297 | |
| 49 | FM | Mehar Chinna Reddy C.H. | IND | 2293 |
| 50 | FM | Mohammad Fahad Rahman | BAN | 2278 |
| 51 | WIM | Ivana Maria Furtado | IND | 2277 |
| 52 | Iniyan P | IND | 2275 | |
| 53 | Patil Pratik | IND | 2270 | |
| 54 | CM | Prince Bajaj | IND | 2268 |
| 55 | FM | Rajdeep Sarkar | IND | 2267 |
| 56 | IM | Murali Krishnan B T | IND | 2260 |
| 57 | Srijit Paul | IND | 2259 | |
| 58 | Deshpande Aniruddha | IND | 2257 | |
| 59 | Lokesh N. | IND | 2255 | |
| 60 | FM | Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari | IND | 2252 |
| 61 | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | IND | 2248 | |
| 62 | Vijay Keerthi K. | IND | 2248 | |
| 63 | IM | Krishna Teja N | IND | 2246 |
| 64 | Hemant Sharma (del) | IND | 2242 | |
| 65 | Erigaisi Arjun | IND | 2238 | |
| 66 | Debarshi Mukherjee | IND | 2233 | |
| 67 | Shailesh Dravid | IND | 2230 | |
| 68 | Navalgund Niranjan | IND | 2223 | |
| 69 | FM | Nihal Sarin | IND | 2217 |
| 70 | WIM | Michelle Catherina P | IND | 2216 |
| 71 | Ram S. Krishnan | IND | 2212 | |
| 72 | Shreyansh Daklia | IND | 2212 | |
| 73 | AGM | Lakshmi Narayanan M V | IND | 2205 |
| 74 | Santu Mondal | IND | 2195 | |
| 75 | Hirthickkesh Pr | IND | 2187 | |
| 76 | IM | Chakravarthi Reddy M | IND | 2176 |
| 77 | FM | Praggnanandhaa R | IND | 2174 |
| 78 | Harikrishnan.A.Ra | IND | 2172 | |
| 79 | FM | Matta Vinay Kumar | IND | 2163 |
| 80 | Singh S. Vikramjit | IND | 2155 | |
| 81 | Snehal Bhosale | IND | 2155 | |
| 82 | Tiwari Arjun | IND | 2125 | |
| 83 | Bhambure Shantanu | IND | 2120 | |
| 84 | Jain Naveen | IND | 2113 | |
| 85 | Joshi Govind Ballabh | IND | 2113 | |
| 86 | WIM | Nandhidhaa Pv | IND | 2111 |
| 87 | Debashish Dutta | IND | 2111 | |
| 88 | Arjun Kalyan | IND | 2107 | |
| 89 | Deepak Katiyar | IND | 2107 | |
| 90 | CM | Sadhwani Raunak | IND | 2104 |
| 91 | Shrutarshi Ray | IND | 2103 | |
| 92 | CM | Rathanvel V S | IND | 2099 |
| 93 | Nishant Malhotra | IND | 2099 | |
| 94 | Koustav Chatterjee | IND | 2097 | |
| 95 | Saurabh Anand | IND | 2097 | |
| 96 | WFM | Srija Seshadri | IND | 2092 |
| 97 | Dahale Atul | IND | 2088 | |
| 98 | Rahul Srivatshav P | IND | 2086 | |
| 99 | Anilkumar O.T. | IND | 2070 | |
| 100 | Subhayan Kundu | IND | 2069 | |
| 101 | Sankalp Gupta | IND | 2068 | |
| 102 | Choudhary Jitendra Kumar | IND | 2066 | |
| 103 | Audi Ameya | IND | 2061 | |
| 104 | Suvradeepta Das | IND | 2060 | |
| 105 | Pardeep Arora | IND | 2054 | |
| 106 | CM | Sharang Sanjeev Kapoor | IND | 2053 |
| 107 | WCM | Chandreyee Hajra | IND | 2050 |
| 108 | Vantika Agrawal | IND | 2048 | |
| 109 | Phadke Sohan | IND | 2045 | |
| 110 | Kakumanu Kautil | IND | 2044 | |
| 111 | Kulkarni Vinayak | IND | 2043 | |
| 112 | CM | Gukesh D | IND | 2041 |
| 113 | Nath Rupankar | IND | 2038 | |
| 114 | Gandhi Anish | IND | 2037 | |
| 115 | Aansh Gupta | IND | 2033 | |
| 116 | Kumar Gaurav | IND | 2030 | |
| 117 | Sumit Grover | IND | 2028 | |
| 118 | Nayak Rajesh | IND | 2023 | |
| 119 | Bala Kannamma P | IND | 2020 | |
| 120 | Adhithya S | IND | 2018 | |
| 121 | Didwania Vishal | IND | 2014 | |
| 122 | Pradip Tiwari | IND | 2013 | |
| 123 | Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu V | IND | 2011 | |
| 124 | Sanjeet Manohar | IND | 2008 | |
| 125 | Manush Shah | IND | 2003 | |
| 126 | WIM | Parnali S Dharia | IND | 2002 |
| 127 | Cholleti Sahajasri | IND | 2002 | |
| 128 | Sa Kannan | IND | 2002 | |
| 129 | Negi Virender Singh | IND | 2000 | |
| 130 | Ojas Kulkarni | IND | 2000 | |
| 131 | Ritam Nag | IND | 2000 | |
| 132 | Darpan Inani | IND | 1995 | |
| 133 | Harshita Guddanti | IND | 1994 | |
| 134 | Harshavardhan G B | IND | 1993 | |
| 135 | FM | Tiwari Ashwani | IND | 1992 |
| 136 | Gurung Rakesh | IND | 1981 | |
| 137 | Supriya Joshi | IND | 1981 | |
| 138 | Alahakoon Isuru | SRI | 1979 | |
| 139 | Raahul V S | IND | 1975 | |
| 140 | Gavi Siddayya | IND | 1971 | |
| 141 | Naveen S Hegde | IND | 1966 | |
| 142 | Madhurima Shekhar | IND | 1963 | |
| 143 | Priyanka K | IND | 1961 | |
| 144 | CM | Aditya Mittal | IND | 1960 |
| 145 | Arjun Adappa | IND | 1960 | |
| 146 | Aditya Basu | IND | 1959 | |
| 147 | Purushothaman T | IND | 1955 | |
| 148 | Balkishan A. | IND | 1947 | |
| 149 | Ganguly Ritabroto | IND | 1946 | |
| 150 | WFM | Arpita Mukherjee | IND | 1934 |
| 151 | Vardan Nagpal | IND | 1930 | |
| 152 | WCM | Isha Sharma | IND | 1927 |
| 153 | WCM | Salonika Saina | IND | 1926 |
| 154 | Mulay Pratik | IND | 1926 | |
| 155 | Kunal Kakumanu | IND | 1924 | |
| 156 | Srikanth K. | IND | 1918 | |
| 157 | Shweta Gole | IND | 1915 | |
| 158 | FM | Shrestha Sujendra Prasad | NEP | 1913 |
| 159 | WFM | Tarini Goyal | IND | 1908 |
| 160 | Kavinda Akila | SRI | 1908 | |
| 161 | IM | Wazeer Ahmad Khan | IND | 1907 |
| 162 | Ashutosh Kumar | IND | 1907 | |
| 163 | Barath Kalyan M | IND | 1903 | |
| 164 | Doshi Moksh Amitbhai | IND | 1899 | |
| 165 | Joshi Abhijeet | IND | 1895 | |
| 166 | WCM | Sapale Saloni | IND | 1892 |
| 167 | Sahil Tickoo | IND | 1889 | |
| 168 | CM | Raja Rithvik R | IND | 1887 |
| 169 | Shuban Saha | IND | 1885 | |
| 170 | Elancheralathan P | IND | 1876 | |
| 171 | Joy Antony | IND | 1872 | |
| 172 | Tarun V Kanth | IND | 1871 | |
| 173 | Negi D.S. | IND | 1869 | |
| 174 | Ambarish Sharma | IND | 1861 | |
| 175 | CM | Mendonca Leon Luke | IND | 1859 |
| 176 | Vijay Anand M. | IND | 1858 | |
| 177 | Mishra Anwesha | IND | 1855 | |
| 178 | Vakil Akhtara | IND | 1853 | |
| 179 | Devansh Ratti | IND | 1846 | |
| 180 | Panesar Vedant | IND | 1842 | |
| 181 | Deepak Rai | IND | 1829 | |
| 182 | Saksham Rautela | IND | 1826 | |
| 183 | Diwan Rajesh | IND | 1820 | |
| 184 | Anant Prabhudesai | IND | 1818 | |
| 185 | Rajesh Kumar Nath | IND | 1806 | |
| 186 | Prithu Gupta | IND | 1803 | |
| 187 | Subba Raju S. | IND | 1789 | |
| 188 | Bhanot Stuti | IND | 1767 | |
| 189 | Prasant N Nayagam | IND | 1747 | |
| 190 | Sanjit Dutta | IND | 1738 | |
| 191 | Dushyant Sharma | IND | 1732 | |
| 192 | Chaudhary Sushil | NEP | 1722 | |
| 193 | Jadhav Vaibhavi | IND | 1676 | |
| 194 | Archi Agrawal | IND | 1633 | |
| 195 | CM | Nikhil Magizhnan | IND | 1601 |
