Fourth seed Arjun Erigaisi will head a very strong 14-member Indian presence in the $60,000 Sharjah Masters chess that started on Saturday.
Russian Vladimir Fedoseev, playing under the FIDE flag, is the top seed, followed by Armenia’s Gabriel Sargissian and UAE’s Salem Saleh in the race for the winner’s share of $10,000.
Following the in-form Arjun are compatriots S.L. Narayanan, D. Gukesh, Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani, B. Adhiban — all members of India’s 2022 Chess Olympiad teams. Of the 14 Indians, except Sankalp Gupta and International Master Aditya Mittal, all GMs are rated above 2600. The field is limited to 80 players, the rating eligibility being 2300.
