But it will be no cake walk for the runner-up in the Asian Men's Championships as Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay (Union Bank), who won the Rapid title preceding the tournament, will be wanting to extend his reign.

Thipsay had won the rapid title when the tournament was held last time in 1994. By winning it this year, he has made it a double and it remains to be seen whether he can win the main tournament of 11 rounds.

Some 70 rated players, with a clutch of International Masters and International Woman Masters, are expected to participate in the tournament.

IM Abhijit Kunte of IOC has a higher rating than Thipsay and is seeded second behind Barua. Thipsay is third. Kunte, the former national champion who had a great 1997, is likely to give the two Grandmasters a run for their money. So iscandidate IM V Saravanan, who finished third in the nationals.

The other International Masters who will be vying for the top prize of Rs 51,000 are Ponnuswamy Konguvel, Varghese Koshy (both ONGC), NK Mishra (Tata Steel), N Sudhakar Babu (Indian Bank), SC Sahu (UBI), AB Vaidya (Mah), Anup Deshmukh and Vishal Sareen (LIC).

There will be few women participants as the National Women's B championships will be held at Chennai from December 2. National champion Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman, IWM Bhagyashree Thipsay, Swati Ghate and Nisha Mohota will be present.