King Salman International Chess Championship Kicks Off

2017 King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships.

Riyadh, MINA – The 2017 King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championship commenced in Riyadh Monday evening, KUNA reported.

The championship, which enjoys great interest by international media, is held in the kingdom for the first time and hosts 236 players representing 70 countries.

The total Prize Fund for the event is USD 2,000,000, with individual prize funds of USD 750,000 for the Open and USD 250,000 for the women in both events. This is almost 350 percent more than the previous event.

There will be 30 prizes for each event, with the first prize being USD 250,000 in the Open Section and USD 80,000 in the Women’s Section, all new records.

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Magnus Carlsen (Norway), the highest-rated chess player in the world and World Champion in classical chess, will take part in the championships. The incumbent World Rapid and Blitz Champions — Sergey Karjakin (Russia) and Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), along with over 180 top grandmasters have confirmed their participation, making the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships the strongest open events of the year.

Notable entries include World ranked no.2 Levon Aronian of Armenia and world no.3 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, former World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and a record-breaking level of grandmasters from over 40 countries. (T?RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)