Play chess in the beautiful city of Abu Dhabi!

by Himank Ghosh - 11/08/2022

One of the biggest and most famous chess festivals in the world, the Abu Dhabi Chess Festival is going to start on 16th August 2022. The "land of the Gazelle" will play host to many 2700+ GMs who will participate in the Master's event. A total of 83 Indian players will participate in the Masters section, while 77 Indian players will play in the Open section. Some of the top Indian players in the Masters section include GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin, and Abhijeet Gupta What is the schedule and prize money for the event? Who are the top Indian players participating? We present all the information in this short article. Photo courtesy: The official website of the Abu Dhabi International Chess festival.

Celebration of chess in a beautiful city

The official logo of the tournament. Photo: Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival Facebook page.

One of the most-awaited chess tournaments around the globe, the Abu Dhabi Chess festival will start on the 16th of August, 2022. The festival features no less than 11 events spread throughout 9 days - it will come to an end on 25th August. The headliner, of course, is the Masters' event which has attracted 54 Grandmasters and 49 International masters so far. The top seed is world no. 18 GM Wang Hao, who came out of retirement on 2022.

The top 6 seeds of the Abu Dhabi Masters. L to R: GMs Wang Hao, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Alexandr Predke, Anton Korobov, Arjun Erigaisi, Bassem Amin.

Photo: Lennart Ootes,Mark Livshitz, David Llada, Madelene Belinki.

Venue

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, is a coastal city that boasts a splendid skyline and sandy beaches. The official hotel and playing venue will be the 5-star Radisson Blu Hotel & Resort, Abu Dhabi Corniche.

The players can enjoy the amazing beach view on the rest day. Photo: Radisson Hotels official website.

Following are the booking rates for the hotel:

Source: Abu Dhabi international chess festival Official website.

Various events, Prize money, and Eligibility:

The total prize fund for the Chess Festival is a massive 300,000 AED. Following are the details of the Prize money structure spread across the 11 events to be held throughout the festival. All the prize money amounts are in US Dollars.

Source: Abu Dhabi international chess festival Official website.

These are the eligibility criteria for the events. The Family Team tournament, Frontline heroes chess tournament, and seniors chess tournament have free registration.

Source: Abu Dhabi international chess festival Instagram page.

Indian players in the tournament:

There are a total of 83 Indian players participating in the Master's event. Some of the well-known players, who will participate in the event are GM Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin, WGM Vantika Agarwal, WIM Isha Sharma, etc. The top seeds for the Indian contingent are as follows: