Kerala vs Cuba, Nihal vs Praggnanandhaa set to take place at Che International Chess Festival 2023

by Shahid Ahmed - 15/11/2023

Government of Kerala is organizing Che International Chess Festival at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala from 16th to 20th November. There will be simultaneous exhibition matches, young talents tournament, Kerala vs Cuba team match in all three formats, chess training sessions by IM V Saravanan and GM FST R B Ramesh and the main attraction will be India no.3, GM R Praggnanandhaa vs India no.7, GM Nihal Sarin. They will play ten Blitz games on Monday 20th November 2023. Cuban team members are: GM Dylan Isidro Berdayes Ason, GM Elier Miranda Mesa, IM Rodney Oscar Perez Garcia and WGM Lisandra Ordaz Valdes. Kerala team members are: GM S L Narayanan, IM Jubin Jimmy, FM Goutham Krishna H and WIM Nimmy A G.

Kerala and Cuba to play friendly chess matches

Government of Kerala is organizing Che International Chess Festival from 16th to 20th November where Kerala's best will take on Cuba's best. Not only that, Kerala's budding talents will get to face the top players of Cuba, GM R Praggnanandhaa and GM Nihal Sarin in simultaneous exhibition matches. Praggnanandhaa and Nihal will also play friendly Blitz games against each other. We will show the Blitz matches live on our youtube channel.

Chess International Chess Festival 2023 posters | Photo: dsya.kerala.gov.in

Che International Chess Festival will take place 16th to 20th November 2023

Schedule

Thursday 16th November 2023: Che International Chess Festival will be inaugurated by the Kerala Chief Minister - Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan at 11 a.m. Inaugural move will be made at 12 p.m. After that, there will be lunch break till 1:30 p.m. Simultaneous exhibition matches will be played by four Cuban GMs against 64 selected young chess talents of Kerala from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. There will also be a young talents chess tournament from 12 to 5 p.m. Players meeting is at 5 p.m. IST.

16th November itinerary

Friday 17th November 2023: Cuba vs Kerala match will take place. The first Classical game will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Three Rapid games will take place from 3:30 to 7 p.m. IST in Scheveningen format.

17th November itinerary

Cuba team: GM Dylan Isidro Berdayes Ason, GM Elier Miranda Mesa, IM Rodney Oscar Perez Garcia and WGM Lisandra Ordaz Valdes.

Kerala team: GM S L Narayanan, IM Jubin Jimmy, FM Goutham Krishna H and WIM Nimmy A G.

GM S L Narayanan

IM Jubin Jimmy | Photo: FA Lana Afandiyeva

FM Goutham Krishna H

WIM Nimmy A G

Saturday 18th November 2023: Cuba vs Kerala match will resume with a rapid game from 9:30 a.m. followed by eight blitz games from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. IST. Scoring: Classical - Win 4, Draw 2 points. Rapid - Win 2, Draw 1 point. Blitz - Win 1, Draw 0.5 point. There will be chess training session from 2 p.m. IST by IM V Saravanan.

18th November itinerary

IM V Saravanan will have a chess training session from 2 p.m. IST on Saturday 18th November

Sunday 19th November 2023: There will be two training sessions by GM FST R B Ramesh from 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. IST.

19th November itinerary

GM FST R B Ramesh will have two training sessions on Sunday 19th November

Monday 20th November 2023: GM R Praggnanandhaa and GM Nihal Sarin will play ten Blitz games against each other from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Then from 2 to 5 p.m. they will each play simultaneous exhibition matches against 16 selected young chess talents of Kerala. Valedictory ceremony will start at 5 p.m. Chief Guests will be Ambassador of Cuba and the Speaker of Kerala Legislative Assembly.