Nearly 200 players will vie for honors in the Dr N Mahalingam 28th National Under 17 Open and Girls Chess Championship beginning here from October 24.

The 9-day tournament will be a selection trail, as winners will represent India both in Commonwealth Games and World Chess championship.

So far 100 boys and 70 girls have registered their name for the tournament, being conducted at Kumaraguru College of Technology and likely to cross 200 mark.

The players include Fide Masters, Candidate Masters in Open category and Women Internationals, Fide and Candidate masters in Girls category.

The cash prize, amounting to Rs.2.50 lakh will be distributed among 20 players in each category.