Khanty Mansiysk, Russia: Reigning Asian champion Grandmaster P Harikrishna will spearhead the Indian challenge, starting out against Maxim Rodshtein of Israel, in the World Chess Cup that gets underway here.
While Harikrishna starts as a favourite in the event starting on Saturday, 2008 world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta has a higher-ranked opponent in Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan.
The other Indian in the fray, Parimarjan Negi meets Vladimir Akopian of Armenia and is likely to get a walkover due to a leg injury that the latter suffered some days back.
Surprisingly, there are only three Indians in the fray in the World Cup this year as GMs such as K Sasikiran and Surya Shekhar Ganguly could not make the cut from a couple of qualification tourneys organised in the past two years.
With 128 participants in fray, the participants' list is as impressive as ever even without the big four - Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Russian Vladimir Kramnik and Armenian Levon Aronian.
The World Cup is a part of the 2013 World Championship cycle.
Sergey Karjakin of Russia starts as the top seed in the USD 1.6 million knockout event in which each round will see two games under normal time control of 90 minutes with 30 seconds increment as each move is played.
If the scores are tied after two games, rapid games shall come in to effect followed by a couple of blitz games. If the deadlock continues, a final Armageddon game will be played with five minutes to white and four for black and white must win to proceed to the next round.
It will be a real test of preparation, perseverance and nerves for the Indian trio.
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