Leon Mendonca stars in Kramnik Challenge starting today

by Shahid Ahmed - 12/08/2021

The third event of Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour - Kramnik Challenge starts today with a reduced line-up of 16 players from the previous two events, 20. The reason behind the reduction of players and thus the total rounds is many players are playing over-the-board events now. Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh and Nihal will miss this event as they are playing in the ongoing Riga Technical University Open 2021 and Badelka, Mammadzada and Salimova are playing European Individual Women's 2021. Total prize fund for the Kramnik Challenge is US$15,000. Three teeangers make their debut in this event - France's youngest grandmaster Marc Andria Maurizzi, Balaji Daggupati of USA and Yahli Sokolovsky of Israel. The tournament will start at 7:30 p.m. IST every day between 12th and 15th August 2021. Photo: Challengers Chess Tour

Who will qualify to the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour?

Praggnanandhaa won the Polgar Challenge in April and Gukesh won the Gelfand Challenge in June. However, this time neither of them will be playing along with Nihal Sarin as they all are playing in the ongoing RTU Open 2021. Leon Luke Mendonca will be the sole Indian player in the Kramnik Challenge.

Leon will be the sole participant from India in the Kramnik Challenge | Photo: Challengers Chess Tour

Once again Team Polgar beat Team Kramnik 101-89 in the previous event | Photo: Challengers Chess Tour

The players have been divided into two teams, Team Polgar and Team Kramnik, competing in a series of four four-day round-robin tournaments organised by the Play Magnus Group before the grand finals. This is the third event in the Challengers Chess Tour.