The Courts HomeCentres Open Chess Championship is back and will be played this Saturday at the Fiji Olympic House in Suva.

Hamendra Prasad, operations manager of Courts HomeCentres, said the “ he is happy to continue support for an intellectual exercise like chess in Fiji” and has provided eight valuable prizes for the top place-getters in three separate categories. Candidate Master Manoj Kumar will be out to avenge his loss to fellow CM Calvin Prasad in the national chess league. Both players who figured prominently in the recent Oceania Zonal on the Gold Coast will be top contenders in the weekend event.

Veteran Dr Neel Arora, former Olympiad rep Asheesh Gautam, Goru Arvind and Asheel Singh will provide the challenge in the A category, while youngsters Ravi Bhavsar, Dhiraj Chand, Gaurav Raicker and Wayne Areki will fight it out in the B category.

In the women’s division, grandmother Gloria Sukhu like a vintage wine will have more experience than her younger counterparts Hilda Vukikomoala, Aditi Sharan and Uma Kumari.

Fiji Chess Federation president Dr Virgilio de Asa is optimistic of a good turn-out particularly among the primary and secondary students. He is giving two chess sets for the best-placed student winners as part of the federation’s junior development programme.

The five-round Swiss System tourney will start at 8.30 am. Interested players should report and register at the game venue before the first round.

Meanwhile, CM Prasad recorded an outstanding feat when he won the national chess league championship on Sunday. He has claimed the chess league title five years in a row from 2004 except in 2007 when the league was not played. Kumar bagged the first league championship in 2002 and Dr Arora in 2003.