A strong field of 157 players from 10 countries, including six International Masters and 24 FIDE Masters and Women FIDE Masters, will converge on the Maximum City for the Asian Junior Chess Championships from August 16 to 26.

The championship, organised by the Maharashtra Chess Association under the aegis of the All India Chess Federation, Asian Chess Federation and FIDE, will be held at a five-star hotel in Parel. The announcement was made at a press conference on Wednesday by MCA president Dr. Parinay Fuke, tournament director Niranjan Godbole and organising secretary Salil Ghate.

The tournament will feature nine rounds of Classical chess, besides seven rounds each of Rapid and Blitz. The tournament offers a significant incentive: winners who are already IMs will earn a Grandmaster norm, while non-IM winners will receive an IM norm.

The Open section is headed by Indian IM Mayank Chakraborty (2500), followed by Russia’s IM Artem Pingin (2477) and India’s IM Apporv Kamble (2441). Among the women, WFM Pratitee Bordoloi (2252) leads Kazakhstan’s WFA Mariya Kholyavko (2217) and Turkmenistan’s WFM Lala Shohradova (2159).

Indian players Vignesh Advaith Vemula, Aaditya Dhingra and Akshay Borgaonkar will also be among those to watch, while Swara Lakshmi Nair, Mrittika Mallick and Saranya Devi Narahari headline the Indian women’s challenge.

The event has previously crowned several prominent Indian players, including Viswanathan Anand, Abhijit Kunte, Tejas Bakre, Tania Sachdev, Koneru Humpy and Ivana Furtado.