Pune, Apr 19 (PTI) Top players from 13 countries including India will participate in the third edition of the Maharashtra Open Grandmaster tournament to be held here from April 20-28.

The event will be organised by the Maharashtra Chess Association under the auspices of the All India Chess Federation (AICF) and the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

Apart from the host nation, the competition will feature players from Armenia, USA, Indonesia, Slovakia, Georgia, Russia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Egypt.

“The tournament will be conducted in a nine-round Swiss league format in accordance with FIDE’s latest rules. A generous prize fund of Rs 30 lakh has been announced, making it one of the most lucrative chess events in the country,” the organisers said in a release.

The participants from India include GM Abhijeet Gupta, Venkatesh, MR, Karthikeyan, P Deep Sengupta, Chanda Sandipan, Ayush Sharma, Neelash Saha.

Armenia’s Grigoryan Karen H and Manuel Petrosyan, Boris Savchenko, Stany GA Levan Pantsulaia and Sanikidze Tornike from Georgia, Teterev Vitaly, Fedorov Alexei and Podolchenko will be the part of the event.

Nguyen Van Huy, Marat Dzhumaev from Uzbekistan and Manik Mikulas from Slovakia will also be among the participants.

International Arbiter (IA) Srivastan R has been appointed as the chief arbiter, and IA Atharva Godbole will serve as the deputy arbiter. PTI DDV UNG