Sharjah: Grandmaster and world number seven Erigaisi Arjun starts as the top seed as he spearheads a strong Indian challenge in the $52,000 Sharjah Masters Chess tournament here. One of the strongest open events in the world will see participation of as many as 19 Indian Grandmasters and S L Narayanan will be the second highest rated Indian ahead of Nihal Sarin.
The nine-round Swiss tournament, which carries a total prize pool of $52,000 with $ 2,000 reserved for the winner, begins later in the day.
Arjun flew straight from Warsaw where he just finished the Superbet Rapid and Blitz tournament ending fifth overall.
This is a rare case of a top-10 player participating in open events and Arjun has played exceptionally well in the past few months.
The reason top players avoid competing in open events is the huge risk to their rating but Arjun is setting new standards by actually gaining points from open events.
While there are nine players above Elo 2700 in the fray, Arjun is 29 points ahead of second seed Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran.
The tournament comes close on the heels of Dubai Police Global Chess challenge that was dominated by the Indians.
V Pranav was the worthy winner taking home $16,500.
For the first time ever in an International open of this stature, the top three prizes were bagged by Indians with Aravindh Chithambaram finishing second and M Pranesh coming third.