In the absence of Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran, Commonwealth champion GM Dibyendu Barua will spearhead the Indian challenge in the Smith and Williamson 2003 British chess championship, which gets underway in Edinburg, Scotland, today.
Defending champion R B Ramesh, who was the first Indian to win the prestigious championship since Mir Sultan Khan annexed the crown thrice in the late 1920s and early 1930s, will also be missing from the line-up.
Ramesh failed to make it to the national side this year while Sasikiran is playing in the Politiken Cup tournament at Copenhagen in Denmark.
Barua is most likely to start as second seed in the event, where the top billing is given to GM Vassilios Kotronias of Cyprus.
Grandmasters Pendyala Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte, International Master Sunderrajan Kidambi, Neelotpal Das and Tejas Bakre, who plays as a direct entrant, are the other Indian men in the fray.
The championship will be played under FIDE's Swiss rules and there will be 11 rounds in all between 83 participants.
Women Grandmasters Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi and Aarthie Ramaswamy will lead the Indian challenge for the
women's title, which was won last year by Grandmaster Koneru Humpy, who will be missing tournament as she is away in Copenhagen.
Women International Masters Nisha Mohota, Swati Ghate, Subbaraman Meenakshi and Eesha Karavade will all be looking for their WGM norms.
Meenakshi, in fact, had a tremendous run in the last edition of the tournament when she attained not only her WGM norm, but also an IM norm.
Barua is in excellent nick following a big success in Commonwealth at Mumbai earlier this year and should he continue with his ominous form, the GM still has a lot of venom left despite being the oldest Indian in the tournament.
Harikrishna, a former Commonwealth champion, has not been performing at his best off late and he will have more than a few things to prove when he starts his campaign.
Ganguly is also in similar shoes, having missed out on an opportunity to win a medal in the last World Juniors Championship at Azerbaijan while Abhijit Kunte will look forward to a substantial increase in his present rating of 2515 Elo points.
The Indian team:
Men: Pendyala Harikrishna, Abhijit kunte, Dibyendu Barua, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Sundararajan Kidambi, Neelotpal Das, Tejas Bakre.
Women: Aarthie Ramaswamy, S Vijayalakshmi, Nisha Mohota, Swati Ghate, S Meenakshi, Eesha Karavade.
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