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Time of India
a day ago
- Sport
- Time of India
FIDE allots Chess World Cup to India after 23-year gap; Ahmedabad and Goa in the running
NAGPUR: The world chess federation (FIDE) on Monday gave India the hosting rights for the World Cup (open) to be held from Oct 30 to November 27. The All India Chess Federation (AICF) won the bid to host the World Cup after a gap of 23 years, but infighting among officials delayed the announcement of the city where the world's best players will battle for the coveted title, along with three qualification spots for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. TOI has learnt that the 29-day event will be staged either in Goa or Ahmedabad. An AICF official said, 'Having won the bid, we will start the process of approval from the govt. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Once that is done, we will soon announce the host city. Both Goa and Ahmedabad are interested in playing host to the world's top players. Everything will be finalised in our next executive meeting.' New Delhi had hosted the knockout world championship in 2000 but the title clash was staged in Tehran. Hyderabad then hosted the eight-player World Cups (both Open and women) in 2002 when it was played in group-cum-knockout format. In a statement, FIDE said: 'The World Cup 2025 will feature 206 players competing in a knockout format — a dynamic and unpredictable system where the losing player in each round is eliminated. The event has used several formats over the years, but since 2021, it has followed a single-elimination format.' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Villas For Sale in Dubai Might Surprise You Dubai villas | search ads Get Deals Undo A handful of Indian players will take part in the eightround knockout tournament. Every round will be played for three days — two classical games on the initial two days, followed by rapid and blitz tiebreaks. The top 50 rated players will take part from the second round while players seeded from 51 to 206 will compete in the opening round. As per the June rating list, as many as 20 Indian players including world champion D Gukesh have already qualified to participate in the World Cup. FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky said, 'We are thrilled to bring the FIDE World Cup 2025 to India, a country with a deeprooted passion and support for chess. Indian chess fans' enthusiasm has always been remarkable, and we anticipate great interest in the event among local chess lovers, both on-site and online.' Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
Time of India
2 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
FIDE allots chess World Cup to India, Goa Or Ahmedabad likely to be host city
Nagpur: The world chess federation (FIDE) on Monday gave India the hosting rights for the World Cup (open) to be held from October 30 to November 27. The All India Chess Federation (AICF) won the bid to host the World Cup after a gap of 23 years, but the infighting among officials delayed the announcement of the city where the world's best players will battle for the coveted title and three qualification spots for the 2026 Chess Candidates Tournament. TOI has learnt that the 29-day event will be staged either in Goa or Ahmedabad. An AICF official said, "Having won the bid, we will start the process of approval from the govt. Once that is done, we will soon announce the host city. Both Goa and Ahmedabad are interested in playing host to the world's top players. Everything will be finalised in our next executive meeting." New Delhi had hosted the knockout world championship in 2000 but the title clash was staged in Tehran. Hyderabad then hosted the eight-player World Cups (both Open and women) in 2002 when it was played in group-cum-knockout format. In a statement, FIDE said: "The World Cup 2025 will feature 206 players competing in a knockout format — a dynamic and unpredictable system where the losing player in each round is eliminated. The event has used several formats over the years, but since 2021, it has followed a single-elimination format." A handful of Indian players will take part in the eight-round knockout tournament. Every round will be played for three days — two classical games on the initial two days, followed by rapid and blitz tiebreaks. The top 50 rated players will take part from the second round while players seeded from 51 to 206 will compete in the opening round. As per the June rating list, as many as 20 Indian players including world champion D Gukesh have already qualified to participate in the World Cup. FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky said, "We are thrilled to bring the FIDE World Cup 2025 to India, a country with a deep-rooted passion and support for chess. Indian chess fans' enthusiasm has always been remarkable, and we anticipate great interest in the event among local chess lovers, both on-site and online."
The Hindu
16-07-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
Indian sports wrap, July 16: India stays in contention for semifinal spot at FIBA Women's Asia Cup Division B event
BASKETBALL FIBA Women's Asia Cup, Division B: India stays in contention for semifinal spot India women's basketball team beat Tahiti 78-55 in its final Group A match of the FIBA Women's Asia Cup (Division B) in Shenzhen, China, on Wednesday. Sreekala Rani (15 points) and Sathya Krishnamurthi (11 points) were the top scorers in India's second win of the tournament. India (five points) finished second behind Chinese Taipei (six points) in its group. While Chinese Taipei goes directly into the semifinals, India will face third-placed team from Group B on Friday for a place in the last-four stage. The competition, which concludes on July 20, had eight teams divided equally into two groups with. Winner of the tournament is set to be promoted to Division A. India has previously won the Division B title in 2017 when it was also the host. However, the team missed out on playing in Division A in 2023 and aims to find its way back. -Team Sportstar CHESS AICF to host 10 FIDE trainer seminars in 2025 The All India Chess Federation (AICF) will conduct 10 FIDE trainer seminars this year and one in January 2026. The trainer seminars, aiming to empower the Indian chess coaches for training all levels of growing talents, will start from Vijayawada in August and will cover a host of Indian cities before finally culminating in Ranchi in January 2026. 'For the first time ever, we are witnessing a national federation organising 10 FIDE Trainers' Seminars in a single calendar year — and remarkably, a proposal for the 11th seminar has already been submitted for January,' said Sami Khader, the chair of the TRG (FIDE trainers commission). 'This outstanding initiative by the All India Chess Federation (AICF) is a testament to their unwavering commitment to developing chess trainers and raising the bar for training standards across the region. 'The FIDE Trainers' Commission (TRG) would like to emphasise that this is not only a record-breaking achievement but also reflection of the strong, ongoing collaboration and mutual trust between AICF and TRG.' AICF head of operations, A K Verma said the initiative is a part of producing trained coaches, who can provide quality coaching to budding chess players. 'We have been trying to provide a lot of training support to our coaches and give them the best available training so that they can use the knowledge to train students in their respective academies, institutes, personal coaching as well as in schools,' said Verma. 'For the past could of years, the AICF has been organising five such seminars and from five to 10 is a big leap forward, we just hope more and more coaches join to reap the benefits of this initiative.' Verma also added that he hoped schools will also take cognizance of the importance of having properly trained trainers/teachers with a valid training certificate coming from the apex world body. Top Indian coaches, FST and Dronacharya awardee R B Ramesh, head coach Indian team N Srinath, head coach Indian women team Abhijit Kunte, GM Pravin Thipsay and GM Tejas Bakre have confirmed their participation as coaches for these seminars. SCHEDULE Vijayawada August 8–10; Madurai August 22–24; Kottayam September 12–14; Pune September 19–21; Jaipur September 26–28; Noida, November 14–16; Kolkata November 28–30; Guwahati December 5–7; Bengaluru December 19–21; Ahmedabad December 26–28; Ranchi Januaru 23–25. -PTI Related Topics AICF
New Indian Express
08-07-2025
- Sport
- New Indian Express
Online event for two Challenger slots at Chennai Grand Masters
CHENNAI: Are you a titled player representing the All India Chess Federation (AICF)? You may have the chance to feature in the 'Challengers' section of the third edition of the Chennai Grand Masters, India's biggest annual chess event in terms of rating. In a novel initiative, the organisers of the event have reserved two slots of the undercard to the winner and runner-up of the 'CGM Play-In', an online-only competition to be played on on July 12 and 13. "Titled players representing the India Chess Federation can compete in the Quantbox CGM Play-In for a chance to qualify for the Challengers section of the Chennai Grand Masters," informs the title page of the event on "The Play-In consists of a Swiss and a knockout phase." While the nine-round Swiss event will be held on Saturday night on the top seven players will advance to the knockouts, to be staged on the website a night later (the winner of the Swiss event will receive a first-round bye). There's also a money component for the online event; the winner is set to receive $280 (Rs 24,000), with the runner-up pocketing $210 (Rs 18,000). The bigger incentive, though, is the opportunity to play against the likes of R Vaishali, D Harika and Abhimanyu Puranik, all three of whom have signed up to feature in the Challengers section. The format for the online event is going to be 10+2, with single-elimination in the knockout phase. Titled players are players who are CMs, FMs, IMs, WGMs or even GMs. All-Indian field The 10-person Challengers field will only consist of Indian players. The field also includes the talented Leon Luke Mendonca, who also featured in the event in 2024. The big incentive is that the winner in the section will be invited to play in the elite Masters competition in 2026. For example, Pranav, who emerged winner in the Challengers section in 2024, has confirmed his participation in the Masters section this year. Rs 1 crore in prize money In all, the 20-player two-tier competition will have a total prize money of Rs 1cr. The person winning the Masters event will take home Rs 25 lakh. In the Challengers section, the winner be richer by Rs 7 lakh. Challengers D Harika, R Vaishali, Karthikeyan Murali, Abhimanyu Puranik, Aryan Chopra, Leon Luke Mendonca, Adhiban Baskaran (the announced field so far).
Canada News.Net
27-06-2025
- Business
- Canada News.Net
Landmark initiative for Bharatiya Chess: AICF disburses 1st installment of its National Player Stipend Scheme
New Delhi [India], June 25 (ANI): In an epoch-making stride for Bharatiya chess, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) on Wednesday announced the launch of the Top National Players Stipend Scheme (TNPSS), a groundbreaking financial support initiative set to revolutionise the landscape of chess talent development in the nation. This dream project, passionately championed by AICF President Nitin Narang, marks an unprecedented commitment to nurturing the burgeoning chess prodigies of Bharat from the grassroots up. 'This is more than just a scheme. It shows how deeply we believe in the promise of every young chess player in Bharat.' AICF President Nitin Narang quoted in a press release. 'For the first time in our history, we are directly investing in the future of our 'golden girls and boys', providing them with the sustained financial bedrock they need to transform their talent into triumph. This is more than a token; it's a demonstration of our profound support and a catalyst for their dreams.', Nitin Narang added. 'One of the key objectives is to increase the importance of national tournaments, as they are the foundation for building a strong chess ecosystem in Bharat. It is at the nationals where we can identify and nurture talent', Narang explained. In a move echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of empowering athletes at grassroots level, TNPSS immediately dispatches its first quarterly stipends, ranging from a substantial 60,000 to an impressive 1,50,000, directly into the accounts of top young chess talents of Bharat. A total of 42,30,000 has been disbursed for the months of April to June of the current financial year, reaching deserving players across the Under 7 to Under 19 categories, both open and girls, based on their stellar performances in last year's nationals. President Narang explained the idea behind TNPSS, 'For too long, financial constraints have cast a shadow over the aspirations of our chess players. The demands of travel, training, and international competition often forces players to abandon their passion which is a profound loss for our nation. TNPSS is our definitive answer to these challenges. It is a bold stride towards a player-centric policy that empowers our youth to focus solely on honing their skills and conquering the chessboard.' This pioneering initiative is designed to provide robust financial assistance to promising top players from nationals for a critical period of two years. This invaluable support will significantly alleviate the burden of training and global competition expenses, allowing young players to immerse themselves fully in their game and pursue excellence on the world stage without economic hardship. The first beneficiaries of this visionary scheme are 42 top-ranked players based on their national-level performances last year. These players represent the pinnacle of talent across the U7, U9, U11, U13, U15, U17, and U19 age categories. The quarterly stipends are structured to reflect their age and potential, ranging from 60,000 for Under 7 to a significant 1,50,000 for Under 19, underscoring the AICF's comprehensive commitment. The TNPSS boasts an ambitious budgetary outlay of 6,15,60,000, a clear signal of the AICF's long-term strategic investment in the future of Indian chess. The inaugural beneficiaries of the Top National Players Stipend Scheme include: Under 7: Open: Devanarayanan Kalliyath, Prayank Gaonkar, Aaradhyo Guin Girls: Aaranya R, Arpitangshi Bhattacharya, Saiaastha Singh Under 9: Open: Nidhish Shyamal, Aarit Kapil, Divith Reddy Adulla Girls: Kiyanna Parihaar, Divi Bijesh, Vanshika Rawat Under 11: Open: Madhvendra Pratap Sharma, Advik Amit Agrawal, Aarav A Girls: Pratitee Bordoloi, Aadya Gowda, Divi Bijesh Under 13: Open: Reyan Md, Sherla Prathamesh, Pranav Sai Ram R S Girls: Saranya Devi Narahari, Nivedita V C, Nihira Koul Under 15: Open: Ilamparthi A R, Vaz Ethan, Sherla Prathamesh Girls: Prishita Gupta, Jain Ashita, Saparya Ghosh Under 17: Open: Sriram Adarsh Uppala, Arpith S Bijoy, Jaiveer Mahendru Girls: Tejaswini G, Kirthika B, Anupam M Sreekumar Under 19: Open: Adireddy Arjun, Sourath Biswas, Jaiveer Mahendru Girls: Mrittika Mallick, Velpula Sarayu, Sneha Halder This landmark initiative is a cornerstone of AICF's long-term vision to forge a robust, structured, and inclusive chess ecosystem across Bharat. By providing direct financial assistance to the most promising talents, the AICF is ensuring that young players receive every conceivable support to excel on both national and international stages, solidifying India's position as a global chess powerhouse. 'Bharat has not merely risen; we are now a dominant force, a chess superpower.', said Narang as quoted by the AICF press release. (ANI)
