NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 24: Chess lovers in the country would be expecting Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand to live up to his top billing as the FIDE World Chess Championship gets underway at the Hyatt Regency Hotel here from November 26.Anand, seeded number one in the absence of Gary Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and the newly crowned rival World champion Vladimir Kramnik, has a first round bye along with 27 others according to the ELO ratings, and will take on the winner of the match between Victor Bologan and H Stefansson in the second round.The knock-out competition, which for the first time will also stage a women's contest, has attracted the biggest names in world chess apart from the earlier-mentioned three, including Nigel Short, Michael Adams (both England), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Vaselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler, Sergei Rublevsky (all Russia) and Peter Leko (Hungary).Besides Anand, India would be represented by Grandmasters Dibyendu Barua, playing his third championship, Abhijit Kunte and Krishnan Sasikiran. The women's challenge would be spearheaded by IM Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi, with her younger sister Subbaraman Minakshi and IWM Bhagyashree Thipsay being the other Indian contenders.New Delhi will hold the men's event till the semi-final stage after which six-round final will be played in Tehran. The women's event, however, will be completed here only. Barua will take on GM Evgeny Vladimirov in the first round, while K Sasikiran, who got a wild card entry, will lock horns with IM Anon Simutowe of Zambia.Abhijit Kunte has tough first round opponent in GM Alberto Milos of Brazil.In the women's section defending champion and competition favourite GM Xie Jun of China is likely to face tough challenge from GM Maia Chiburdanize of Georgia, a former World champion.IM S Vijayalakshmi, who impressed immensely with hersilver-medal performance at the recently-concluded Chess Olympiad at Istanbul, has a relatively weak opposition in Koskela Niina of Finland in the first round.Thipsay plays IM Peng Zhaoqin of Netherlands while Meenakshi has WGM Elena Zayac of Russia as her first round opponent.
