The day before the games begin!

As I finished the Kolkata Open tournament, I caught the night train to reach Bhusaval. Bhusaval is around an hour away from Jalgaon the place where the strongest Indian tournament is taking place from 16th to 30th December.The National Premier. My train was delayed by 4 hours. So I reached Bhusaval at 4 in the night! I spent some very anxious moments on the lonely station.

No one awake on the entire station!!

I didnt know how to reach Jalgaon from Bhusaval but someone told me that Sewagram express would arrive in a while and it will stop at Jalgaon. So i got a ticket and travelled in the general compartment!!

I must say they were not the most comfortable moments of my life!!

From the Jalgaon station, I had to travel another 10 kms in the biting cold of 5 am in the morning to reach the Jain Hills!

So many pains to get to the Venue! Was it really worth?

But lo and Behold!! What a beautiful place awaited me! To put it in simple words the venue of National Premier championship 2013 is a combination of a beautiful hill station and a luxury resort!!

No noise, no pollution, no disturbance! Isnt it every chess players dream destination?!!

So close to Nature!!

I haven't really seen people so mindful of the environment as they are at the Jain Hills.

The players are given excellent villa like accomodation.

As the tournament begins from tomorrow, the players were naturally relaxed and at ease. The food is sumptuous and very nourishing!!

B Adhiban very happy with the food arrangements!! :)

The arrangements made by the organisers are excellent. The accomodation, food and playing venue are all nearby each other. This gives all the players ample time to focus on their preparations and play their best chess.

The rounds will take place from 17th December at 2 pm IST. 23rd december will be a rest day.

The pairings for all the 13 rounds have been put up as it is a round robin event.

Here you can find all the details:

http://chess-results.com/tnr119164.aspx?lan=1

The pairings of the first round are as follows:

1	1	2397	IM	Stany G.A.		IM	Debashis Das	2507	14
2	2	2409	IM	Akshat Khamparia		IM	G. Akash	2343	13
3	3	2487	IM	Ashwin Jayaram		GM	Negi Parimarjan	2671	12
4	4	2666	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan		GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2523	11
5	5	2462	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IM	Shyam Nikil P.	2420	10
6	6	2569	GM	Adhiban B.		IM	Rathnakaran K.	2411	9
7	7	2569	GM	Lalith Babu M.R.		IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2452	8

The two room mates Stany and Debashis play each other and the game between two GMs Sasikiran and Vishnu Prasanna will be one to look forward to!
I will keep you all updated with the news from Jalgaon. So stay tuned and stay excited!! For a tournament with a rating average of 2492 doesnt often happen in India!!