Calcutta: A total of 21 Grandmasters, 23 International Masters and four women Grandmasters, would be among the 84 participants from 16 countries in action at the $20,000 prize money Calcutta Open ’07 Grandmasters Chess commencing here on Sunday.

The list of Grandmasters include Netherland’s Sergey Tiviakov with a Fide rating of 2681, followed by Darmen Sadvakasov (2615) of Kazakhstan, Georgia’s Pantsulaia Levan (2612) and Armenia’s Petrosan Tigran (2592).

Grandmasters Abhijit Kunte (2532), Deepan Chakravarthy (2504), RB Ramesh (2483), Dibyendu Barua (2464), and Tejas Bakre (2441) are the Indians in fray.

The 10-day tourney, organised by the Alekhine Chess Club, will conlcude on March 6, and would also see two GMs from neighbouring Bangladesh — Ziaur Rahman (2541) and Niaz Murshed (2451) — vying for top honours at the Gorky Sadan.

Top seed 34-year-old Tiviakov, former under-16 and under-18 world champion, was a part of the Dutch contingent that finished on top of the European Team Championship in 2005.

The Fide-recognised tournament would be inaugurated by union information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi.

The prize distribution for the tournament, that will be played on a 10-round Swiss league format, will be held on March 6.

The winner will be richer by $ 4,500 while the runner-up and third-placed finisher bagging $3,500 and $2.500, respectively.