The 1st SOA International Grandmasters Open Chess Tournament will be held from January 28 to February 4 at the SOA University campus in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
The event has three rating categories: Open A (for players rated 1900+), Open B (for players rated U2000) and Open C (for players rated U1600) with a total prize fund of 32,00,000 Indian rupees (~40,000 USD). The Open A tournament will be played in 10 rounds, swiss system, with the time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment, and features a prize pool of 20,00,000 Indian rupees (~24,000 USD).
Nearly 100 players from 13 countries registered for the Open A, and the top-seeds are GM Diptayan Ghosh (India, 2568), GM Adham Fawzy (Egypt, 2522) and GM Sayantan Das (India, 2514). The complete starting list of players can be found below. Live games can be followed here.
Tournament schedule:
The event is organized by All Odisha Chess Association (AOCA), under the aegis of All India Chess Federation, FIDE, and it’s supported by Slksha o Anusandhan (SOA University), Sports & Youth Services, Govt. of Odisha and Sports Authority of India. Detailed information about the event can be found here.
The 1st SOA International Grandmasters Open A – Starting list of players:
| No. | Name | FED | Rtg | |
| 1 | GM | Ghosh, Diptayan | IND | 2568 |
| 2 | GM | Fawzy, Adham | EGY | 2522 |
| 3 | GM | Das, Sayantan | IND | 2514 |
| 4 | GM | Savchenko, Boris | RUS | 2489 |
| 5 | GM | Fedorov, Alexei | BLR | 2457 |
| 6 | IM | Neelash, Saha | IND | 2446 |
| 7 | IM | Sammed Jaykumar, Shete | IND | 2441 |
| 8 | IM | Nitish, Belurkar | IND | 2435 |
| 9 | IM | Tahbaz, Arash | IRI | 2425 |
| 10 | Kaustuv, Kundu | IND | 2423 | |
| 11 | IM | Sidhant, Mohapatra | IND | 2421 |
| 12 | FM | Adireddy, Arjun | IND | 2415 |
| 13 | FM | Namitbir, Singh Walia | IND | 2408 |
| 14 | IM | Panda, Sambit | IND | 2404 |
| 15 | IM | Ritviz, Parab | IND | 2391 |
| 16 | IM | Audi, Ameya | IND | 2385 |
| 17 | Subhayan, Kundu | IND | 2385 | |
| 18 | IM | Tologon Tegin, Semetei | KGZ | 2384 |
| 19 | FM | Ayush, Sharma | IND | 2378 |
| 20 | GM | Gonzales, Jayson | PHI | 2367 |
| 21 | IM | Liyanage, Ranindu Dilshan | SRI | 2366 |
| 22 | GM | Nguyen, Van Huy | VIE | 2364 |
| 23 | IM | Shahil, Dey | IND | 2363 |
| 24 | IM | Manish, Anto Cristiano F | IND | 2349 |
| 25 | CM | Soham, Kamotra | IND | 2348 |
| 26 | GM | Laxman, R.R. | IND | 2338 |
| 27 | IM | Rajesh, V A V | IND | 2331 |
| 28 | FM | Jaiveer, Mahendru | IND | 2294 |
| 29 | IM | Utsab, Chatterjee | IND | 2290 |
| 30 | FM | Goutham, Krishna H | IND | 2288 |
| 31 | GM | Roy Chowdhury, Saptarshi | IND | 2233 |
| 32 | Ajay, Santhosh Parvathareddy | IND | 2204 | |
| 33 | WGM | Frayna, Janelle Mae | PHI | 2197 |
| 34 | Dere, Pushkar | IND | 2191 | |
| 35 | WFM | Nilssen, Ellen Fredericia | DEN | 2184 |
| 36 | Alekhya, Mukhopadhyay | IND | 2184 | |
| 37 | Aakash Sharadchandra, Dalvi | IND | 2180 | |
| 38 | Nithin, Babu | IND | 2177 | |
| 39 | IM | Sarwat, Walaa | EGY | 2175 |
| 40 | CM | Nayak, Rajesh | IND | 2170 |
| 41 | AGM | Aquino, Jethro Dino | PHI | 2166 |
| 42 | IM | Elgabry, Mohsen | EGY | 2160 |
| 43 | FM | Dhananjay, S | IND | 2151 |
| 44 | WIM | Fronda, Jan Jodilyn | PHI | 2151 |
| 45 | IM | Mohota, Nisha | IND | 2147 |
| 46 | Sathvik, Adiga | IND | 2142 | |
| 47 | IM | Sobh, Amrou | EGY | 2117 |
| 48 | WIM | Salonika, Saina | IND | 2113 |
| 49 | CM | John, Veny Akkarakaran | IND | 2112 |
| 50 | IM | Andyka, Pitra | INA | 2105 |
| 51 | WIM | Priyanka, K | IND | 2068 |
| 52 | CM | Nimay, Agrawal | IND | 2067 |
| 53 | Sambarta, Banerjee | IND | 2064 | |
| 54 | CM | Vaibhav, Jayant Raut | IND | 2052 |
| 55 | Vrashank, Chouhan | IND | 2046 | |
| 56 | CM | Barath, Kalyan M | IND | 2040 |
| 57 | Mahindrakar, Indrajeet | IND | 2039 | |
| 58 | Vignesh, Advaith Vemula | IND | 2028 | |
| 59 | AIM | Abhay, Bandewar | IND | 2025 |
| 60 | Jai, Sankar Subramanian | IND | 2025 | |
| 61 | Patil, Priyanshu | IND | 2022 | |
| 62 | Roneet, Das | IND | 2018 | |
| 63 | WIM | Galas, Bernadette | PHI | 2012 |
| 64 | FM | Jaiswal, Rupesh | NEP | 2009 |
| 65 | Dhrupad, Kashyap | IND | 1998 | |
| 66 | Daaevik, Wadhawan | IND | 1997 | |
| 67 | WFM | Fredericia, Louise | DEN | 1990 |
| 68 | Pattnayak, Nilsu | IND | 1987 | |
| 69 | Aarav, Sinha | IND | 1981 | |
| 70 | Kumar, Gaurav | IND | 1953 | |
| 71 | Chandar, Raju | IND | 1950 | |
| 72 | Sadbhav, Rautela | IND | 1949 | |
| 73 | Setumadhav, Yellumahanthi | IND | 1948 | |
| 74 | Arpan, Das | IND | 1947 | |
| 75 | Bhosale, Shriraj | IND | 1946 | |
| 76 | AFM | Pawar, Harshit | IND | 1945 |
| 77 | Sharnarthi, Viresh | IND | 1945 | |
| 78 | Jani, Kushal R | IND | 1943 | |
| 79 | Tamhankar, Siddhant | IND | 1943 | |
| 80 | Abel, Sajan | IND | 1942 | |
| 81 | Binu, Devdutt | IND | 1937 | |
| 82 | CM | Vivaan, Vijay Saraogi | IND | 1919 |
| 83 | IM | Ramnathan, Balasubramaniam | IND | 1916 |
| 84 | Majumder, Shrayan | IND | 1916 | |
| 85 | WCM | Charvi, A | IND | 1915 |
| 86 | WFM | Shubhi, Gupta | IND | 1913 |
| 87 | Ankit, Ray | IND | 1912 | |
| 88 | Priansh, Das | IND | 1910 | |
| 89 | AIM | Dabhade, Arnav | IND | 1909 |
| 90 | Jake, Shanty | IND | 1903 | |
| 91 | Tiwari, Shivansh | IND | 1902 | |
| 92 | Nikhil, M | IND | 1900 | |
| 93 | WFM | Singgih, Diajeng Theresa | INA | 1867 |
| 94 | WIM | Ranasinghe, S D | SRI | 1667 |
| 95 | Kolomwe, Willian | ZAM | 1625 | |
| 96 | Soboleva, Anastasia | RUS | 1595 |
