4th Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee Memorial

4th Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee Memorial 
All India Open FIDE Rated Chess Tournament starting on 17th August 

Nagpur (16 Aug 11): Former Commonwealth Champion Grandmaster R R Laxman of Indian Railways will starts as top seed and favourite in the 4th edition of the prestigious Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee Memorial All India Open International FIDE Rated Chess Tournament organized by Headquarters Maintenance Command, Indian Air Force that starts at Naivedhyam Celebration Centre here on Wednesday. 

This prestigious event will be inaugurated by Air Marshal PV Athawale PVSM AVSM VSM ADC, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Maintenance Command, IAF at 1100 hrs on 17 Aug 11 in presence of Shri. Praveen Darade IAS, Chairman, Nagpur Improvement Trust. 

Defending champion International Master K Rathnakaran of Railways, second seed International Master Anwesh Upadhyaya from Orissa, International Master S Satyapragyan of Air India, Maharashtra based Railwayman International Master Vikramaditya Kulkarni and Amravati youngster International Master Swapnil Dhopade are other prominent players in the fray and will give tough fight to Laxman’s title hopes along with other eleven International Masters and fancied players from across the country. 

Along with Dhopade, International Master Akshayraj Kore will spear head the Maharashtra hopes while Wing Commander Rajesh Upadhayay and JRD Tata Chess Tournament winner Senior Non-Commissioned Officer K Srikanth will lead the Air Force Challenge.

The women challenge in the field will be led by Women Grandmaster Kiran Manisha Mohanty of Orissa. While playing at home state, Asian Youth Championship Gold medal winner Rucha Pujari of Kolhapur, World Youth Bronze Medallist Abhimanyu Puranik and Nagpur based International Master Anup Deskhmukh of LIC will try to bring cheers to the local chess buffs in this one week long Rs. 4 lacs prize money event sponsored and supported by Nagpur Municipal Corporation, Nagpur Improvement Trust Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation, SMS Infrastructure Ltd, Solar Explosives Ltd, Tirupati Cooperative Bank, Jindal Steels and Vilas HardeTechops Associates.

The winner will pocket a cash prize of Rs. 81,000/- along with coveted Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee Memorial trophy while top twenty players will receive cash prizes.

There will be cash prizes at stake in various categories which will prompt a lot of tiny tots to bring out their best. While the major action will go on, on the top boards, the likes of IM norm holder Ankit R Rajpara of Gujarat, World Junior player CRG Krishna of Andhra Pradesh and Fide Master M B Muralidharan of Kerala have it in them to cause major upsets.

Top players: 

GM Laxman R R 2455
IM Anwesh Upadhyaya 2429
IM Himanshu Sharma 2428
IM Kulkarni Vikramaditya 2427
IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu 2425
IM Swapnil S Dhopade 2414
IM Rathnakaran K 2410
IM Karthikeyan P 2382
IM Akshayraj Kore 2374
IM Murali Krishnan B T 2371
Navin Kanna T U 2355
Tiwari Arjun 2354
Ankit R Rajpara 2341
IM Singh D P 2340
Krishna C R G 2330
FM Sauravh Khherdekar 2328
Thakur Akash 2327
IM Praveen Kumar C 2325
Kulkarni Chinmay 2308

Ram S Krishnan 2305