NEW DELHI, NOV 22: Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua has been invited to participate in the first-ever online Chess Grand Prix on the Internet next month. Barua will be among 14 GMs, including World No 1 Garry Kasparov, Britain's Michael Adams and a computer Deep Junior fighting it out for the top prize of $20,000 (about Rs 8.6 lakh) in the tournament from December 18 to January 1.Barua, the World No 72, is the only representative from India in the tournament that will be played on a knock-out basis, with each round comprising two games of one hour duration. In case of a tie, a play-off comprising two blitz games of five minutes duration will be played.``I am quite excited and looking forward to this first-ever online chess tournament. It should be fun,'' Barua said.``Since we are playing such a tournament for the first time, I really can't say right now how I feel. Obviously it will be different from the conventional chess that we play,'' he said.``There are many psychological factors that come into playwhen you compete with a human being sitting in front of you, but in this tournament you will be playing with only a machine as you cannot see your opponent. So you just have to keep guessing,'' the former National champion said.Each player will take part from different venues in their countries. Barua's venue will be the Tata Centre in Calcutta.The event offers total prizes worth $48,000 (about Rs 20.64 lakh). The first round losers will get $500 (about Rs 21,500) each, second round losers $1,500 (about Rs 64,500) third-round $4,500 (about Rs 1.94 lakh) and the fourth round losers will take home $9,000 (about Rs 3.87 lakh) each.As all the games will be played on the Internet, the event gives people a chance to look at the games as they are played. The other GMs invited are Peter Svidler of Russia, England's Nigel Short, Ivan Sokolov of Belarus, American Yasser Seirwan, Dutchmen Jeroen Piket and Loek van Welly, Illescas Cordoba of Spain, Ettiene Bacrot of France and Gilberto Milos of Brazil.About hispreparation for the tournament, Barua said: ``I have not practised on the Net yet. I am practicing with Sasikiran (the reigning national champion) daily and that should help me. I will start practising on the Internet in the last ten days.'' Barua, with an Elo rating of 2550, is the second-highest ranked Indian in World chess after the second ranked Viswanathan Anand.``It is easier to organise such tourneys because almost all the GMs have Internet and the costs will also become less. Getting sponsors will become much easier.``Moreover, chess lovers can watch the matches `live' on the website which should help in popularising the game,'' Barua said.
