Sasikiran seeded No. 2 at Hastings

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran will have his task cut out as he sets out to defend his title in the Premier event of the 77th Hastings International Chess Congress, starting in Hastings, England, on Friday.

The Congress, which is more of a chess festival, has as many as 12 tournaments that will be played over the next ten days at the Horntye Park Sports Complex.

As many as 17 Indian participants are in the fray and a majority of them will be playing in the challenger tournament that offers excellent chances for acquiring GM and IM norms.

Sasikiran, who tied for the first place alongside GM Stuart Conquest of England in the prestigious event on his maiden appearance last year, is seeded behind top seed Chinese GM Zhang Zhong, who created a major upset in the recently-held World championship in Moscow, by ousting former World champion GM Anatoly Karpov of Russia in the first round itself.

Conquest is not particiapting this year.

Earlier this week, Sasikiran won the All India Chess Federation Golden Jubilee international GM tournament in Kozhikode.

India's youngest GM Pendyala Harikrishna has also been preferred this year for the Premier event that will be a 10-player all-play-all (round robin) event.

Harikrishna is seeded eighth and will look forward to add a good number of ELO points to his rating.

The strong 10-player field includes eight Grandmasters and two International Masters.

The limelight is likely to be hogged by 17-year old IM Irina Krush of the United States, who is also the lone woman participant.

Irina will have to score at least 5.5 points from nine games in order to obtain her GM's norm.