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 chess.com 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 chess.com. "The Play-In consists of a Swiss and a knockout phase."
While the nine-round Swiss event will be held on Saturday night on chess.com, 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).