Indian National Premier starts today

Bhavarlal and Kantabai Jain 51st National
Premier Chess Championship Jalgaon 2013

Report by Sagar Shah

The total prize fund of 1,000,000 Rupees translates to US $16,000 or 11,700 Euros. A higher prize fund for such a strong event would be justified, but the good part is that even the last place gets a decent sum (Rs. 20,000). The rounds take place from 17th December and start at 2 p.m. IST. The 23rd of December will be a rest day.

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Jalgaon is a city in western India, to the north of the Maharashtra state, which is located on the northern Deccan Plateau, near the famous Ajanta Caves, one of the key attraction places for tourists. The area is exceptionally hot and dry during summer, with temperatures reaching as high as 47 degrees Celsius, but receives about 700 mm rainfall during the monsoons, which are followed by pleasant temperature in winter.

The first leg of my trip to the National Premier 2013 took me by night train to Bhusaval, which is around an hour away from Jalgaon. My train was delayed by four hours, and I reached Bhusaval at 4 a.m. to spend some very anxious moments on the lonely station.

No one awake on the entire station!

I didn't know how to reach Jalgaon from Bhusaval, but someone told me that Sewagram Express would arrive in awhile, and that it stopped at Jalgaon. So Igot a ticket and travelled in the general compartment.

I must say they were not the most comfortable moments of my life...

From the Jalgaon station, I had to travel another ten kms in the biting cold of the early morning to reach the Jain Hills. Was it worth it? It was – what a beautiful place awaited me! To put it in simple words: the venue of National Premier Championship 2013 is a combination of a beautiful hill station and a luxury resort.

No noise, no pollution, no disturbance – every chess players dream destination

So close to nature...

I haven't really seen people so mindful of the environment as they are here

The arrangements made by the organisers are excellent. The accomodation, food and playing venue are all near each other. This gives all the players ample time to focus on their preparations and play their best chess.

The players are given excellent villa like accomodation

The players are naturally relaxed and at ease, the food is sumptuous and very nourishing

B. Adhiban, an extemely talented youngster with a phenomenal performance in the World Cup,
is clearly happy with the food arrangements (iddli, dal and puliyogare rice)

Starting rank list of players

Top seed Parimarjan Negi, rated 2671. With his phenomenal opening preparation this lad is is surely
going to unleash some deadly novelties in this tournament – provided he is not busy writing satires.

With his experience and his recent work as Anand's second, GM Krishnan
Sasikiran, 2666, is bound to be a favourite to win the tournament!!

GM Lalith Babu, 2569 – some dub him the Magnus Carlsen of India,
as he can really keep pressing in any position

GM Vishnu Prasanna, 2523, is always cool and composed. This guy can
really beat the best – he recently beat GM Ivan Popov, rated 2645.

IM (soon to be GM) Debashis Das, 2507, combines
talent with hard work – now that's something to fear!

Becoming a GM has been on the to-do list of IM Ashwin Jayaram, 2487, for some
time now. Maybe he would want to do it in style by winning the tournament!

Loads of experience and not easy to beat: GM Deepan Chakravarthy, 2462

IM M.S. Thejkumar, 2452: the positional Genius is back
in form after winning the National Challengers

• Official tournament site / Sagar Shah blog
• We will bring you the games when available.
  Some of them are being broadcast live on the official web site