Briefing journalists at the Calcutta Sports Journalists` Club, Bridge Federation of India secretary Debasish Ray informed on Monday that the championship which is a category one event in the bridge calendar of the country, would offer a total prize money of Rs 8 lakh.
About eighty teams representing nearly 500 players will feature in this meet to be held at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre.
The India internationals who would be seen in action here include Sumit Mukherjee, Rajeswar Tiwari, Sagnik Roy, Kaustabh Nandi , K M Bendre, Sayantan Kushari , B Satyanarayan, Jaggi Shibdasani , Subhas Gupta, Ravi Goenka, Rana Roy , Rajiv Goenka, Debasis Ray and others.
Notable among the women participants are Asha Sharma, Bindiya Kohli, Puja Batra, Bharati Dey, Alka Khirsagar, Himani Khandelwal and others.
The corporate honchos who would be playing at this prestigious meet include Chairman of Shree Cement H M Bangur, Chairman & Managing Director of Balarampur Chini Mills Vivek Saraogi Chairman of Indian Chains N K Chitlangia and others.
The championship would be held for team and pair events. Beside last year's winners Formidables, noted teams which would feature at this popular meet would include Maverick, Dhampur Sugar, Team Arun Jain, Bangur Cement, C A Bridge, Team Monica Jajoo and Indian Chain.
Two players from Israel and another from Norway would also take part in this event and play for team E A Bridge.
(Reporting by Manik Banerjee)