HOST: All Odisha Chess Association (AOCA)
CONTACT PERSONS: AOCA president Sekhar Chandra Sahu (Mobile: 09438563193) and secretary Vivek Tibarewal (Mobile: 09439953866).

DESCRIPTION:
*     The Festival is one of the biggest and most lucrative chess tournaments of Asia, carrying a total prize fund of Rs 16 lakh.
*     Over 500 players from 12 countries have joined the eight-day tournament, which has been divided into three categories _ Elite (Rating 200 and above), Platinum (Raging 2200 and below) and Premium (Rating 1800 and below).
*     However, the focus will be on the Elite category, which involves 90 per cent of the title holders.
*     There will be 27 Grandmasters, three Woman Grandmasters, 25 International Masters and three Woman International International Masters in this category, which offers the highest prize fund of Rs 10 lakhs.
*     Though Elite category is meant for players above 2200 rating, AOCA has allowed some below-rated players from Odisha to compete in the category, considering the fact that they are the future hopes of the state.
*     They include Rakesh Kumar Jena, Sunyasakta Satpathy and Rakesh Kumar Nayak.
*     Odisha IM Swayams Mish, WGM s Padmini Rout, Kiran Manisha Mohanty and Sidhant Mohapatra have directly qualified to compete in the Elite category on basis of their 2200-plus international ratings.
*     Competition in the 10-round Elite category will take place from May 20 to 27.
*     The nine-round Platinum and Premium tournaments will be held from May 20 to 23 and 24 to 27 respectively.
*     Georgia Grandmaster Mikheil Mchedlishvili with a rating of 2645 has been made the top seed for the Elite category.
*     The top billings in Platinum and Premium categories have been given to Laltu Chatterjee (2192) of West Bengal and SVC Chakravarthi (1798) of Andhra Pradesh.
*     Total prize money for Platinum and Premium categories include Rs 2 lakhs and Rs 4 lakhs respectively.
*     Started in the year 2009, this major international tournament seems to have come to stay despite experiencing many ups and downs for the past five years.
*     This has been possible thanks to excellent  teamwork by member of AOCA, especially their president Sekhar Chandra Sahu, who is also the vice-president All India Chess Federation and young secretary Vivek Kumar Tibarewal.