Warsaw (Poland), Apr 24 (PTI) 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 underway here on Saturday.

With his buddy 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 Magnus Carlsen stems from his own admission that the classical format no longer excites him. The world No. 1 since 2011, the Norwegian has shifted his focus to Chess960 — now rebranded as ‘Freestyle Chess’ — and has been enjoying remarkable success, winning the last two events he participated in over the past fortnight.

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. For Aravindh Chithambaram, his foray here happened largely because he did exceedingly well to win the Prague Masters that propelled the organisers to offer him a wild card spot.

Levon Aronian and Veselin Topalov are the two most experienced players in the circuit, but it seems unlikely they will pose a serious challenge to the young cavalry.

Duda Jan-Krzyfztof of Poland and Firouzja might be prime contenders, but those know the might of Praggnanandhaa, never right him off. The Indian had done a remarkable job winning the Tata Steel Masters earlier this year beating world champion D Gukesh and the fans will be looking for an encore from the Chennai magician. PTI Cor ATK