As the world crosses over to 2021, what’s in store for Indian Chess? With enough sauce to dip the bread crumbs in, the year 2020 wasn’t that bad for Indian chess lovers. As the gaming platform shifted online, we made our mark by winning the first ever online chess tournament (shared with Russia) and the 2020 Junior Speed Online Chess Championship (Nihal Sarin defeated Russia’s Alexey Sarana by 18-7). In September 2020, another prestigious victory came as India’s GM P.Iniyan bagged the Annual World Open online chess tournament.
As 2021 glides in, hopes keep the fire on. We have a black stallion settled in our stable: Magnus Carlsen is digging his feet into India’s booming digital chess platform with the Indian Open in 2021. One of the 10 rounds in the Champion’s Chess Tournament from the play Magnus Group, the Indian Open will be held around mid-2021 for a prize fund of $200,000.
The Indian Open: Bottled up with ample wine
If 2021 does not disappoint the Indian chess fans, India will witness one of its greatest chess events online at Indian Open with some of the best players and commentators of the country lined up for the season. The World Champion is hoping to turn it into an annual feature.
As he had remarked in his interview to Firstpost in 2019, Carlsen believes that India will soon be the strongest chess country in the world. The World Champion commented about the country breeding “many fearless young players.” He had said that it is a matter of time to see who emerges to the highest level. Carlsen’s faith in the nation’s talent has been the wood for the fire in initiating a major “Indian” event for the greatest chess tournament online.
The event would be hosted by the online platform chess24 which the PlayMagnus group had acquired back in 2019. The platform will be partnering with Chessbase India. The tournament will be available on chess24 as well as streamed live on Chessbase India’s YouTube channel. The event will be available in both English and Hindi and also on Discovery plus OTT app and the European sports network Eurosport.
Predicting a huge fanfare, the tournament plans to rope in the nation’s best streamers, trainers and even stand-up comedians to entertain the viewers. They had been following the chess events since the Online Chess Olympiad that the country won against Russia. The Indian team’s victory had opened the native galleries to the world’s leading chess platforms in August 2020.
Champion’s Chess and India’s moment de gloire
It is a feather in the Indian crown that the Indian Open is a major event among the ten events of the $1.5 million Champion’s Chess tournament that sprawls over a period of 10 months from 2020-2021. The series that took off in November 2020 with Skilling Open has 3 major events, 6 regular ones and the final event. The winners from the regular event will qualify for the Major events and the winners from the Major will appear for the Finals. The tour will wrap up by the middle of 2021. Vidit Gujrathi was the only one from the Indian team to appear for Skilling Open, the tour’s opening event.
With Discover Inc's Eurosport getting into a broadcast deal with the Play Magnus group for the rights of Pan-European and Asian coverage of the Tournament, chess fans in both continents can view the online game across 60 markets. As per the deal, live coverage of the knockout rounds will be available (English, French, German, and Spanish) through digital platforms including the Eurosport app in Europe and Discovery Plus in India.
As the world rapid and blitz championships have been pushed over to 2021, Carlsen’s Champions Chess tour will pick up momentum as well, narrowing its quest for the fastest control player in the world.
Winding-up
And if you would love to get the tidbits of the events in the New Year, the Champions Chess and more to roll in, hang in there. We would be coming with our satchels full of news and updates from the world of chess.
MindMentorz believes in chess, its intriguing and challenging framework as a board game and the immense possibilities of cognitive development that the game offers for skill development in children. To know more about how learning chess could cultivate in your child better discipline, focus, determination and perseverance, visit us at https://www.mindmentorz.com/ To know more about our online chess coaching, feel free to call us at +919606847428.