Top 32 talents of Indian chess will fight it out in the Super Juniors Cup 2020

Search for the next Indian World Champion

Indian chess is doing exceedingly well. From one grandmaster in 1988, we have now reached 66. Out of these 66 GMs we have nearly 20% of the GMs who are still juniors! Also there is a huge list extremely talented IMs in the country. While there is a lot of promise, the one thing that every Indian chess fan is looking forward to is the search for the next Indian World Champion. The search for the next Vishy Anand. With this in mind, ChessBase India Foundation has organized the Super Juniors Cup 2020.

About the tournament

ChessBase India Foundation is organizing the Super Juniors Cup which consists of 32 top juniors of Indian chess (27 boys and 5 girls). All those who are born on or after 2000 will be taking part in this. The format of the event is Knock-out. The prize money of the tournament is Rs. 302,000 is sponsored by the YouTube subscribers of ChessBase India. This money was collected in the 57th episode of the Improving Chess series with Sagar and the Comedians. 

This tournament was possible because of the subscribers and viewers of ChessBase India. Hence, it goes without saying that this entire event will be broadcast on the ChessBase India YouTube Channel. Each junior will play against another junior in a match format and each match will have a separate duration and will be streamed on the ChessBase India YouTube channel along with expert commentary.

Important details:

Date: 6th to 10th December 2020

Total Prize fund: ₹302,000

First prize: ₹100,000

List of players

The criteria for the selection of the players who take part in the event is based upon their classical rating as on 1st of November 2020. All of the 32 players mentioned below have confirmed their entries.

Complete players list

All details on chess-results

Out of the top 27 junior boys who were approached 26 of them agreed to play. IM Leon Mendonca is the only one who couldn't confirm his participation as he is busy chasing his final GM norm by taking part in the December edition of the first Saturday event. As for the girls all five of the top juniors have confirmed their participation.

Format of Play

Round 1: 4 games of 3+1. In case of 2-2 there will be an Armageddon (5 vs 4)

Round 2 (pre-quarters): 4 games of 3+1. In case of 2-2 there will be an Armageddon (5 vs 4)

Round 3 (quarter finals): 2 games of 5+1 and 4 games of 3+1. In case of 3-3 tie there will be an Armageddon (5 vs 4).

Round 4 (semi-finals): 2 games of 5+1 and 4 games of 3+1. In case of 3-3 tie there will be an Armageddon (5 vs 4).

Battle for third place: The two players who have lost the semi-finals will fight for the third place in the same format as the Semi-Finals

Round 5 (finals): 4 games of 5+1 and 4 games of 3+1. In case of 4-4 tie there will be an Armageddon (5 vs 4).

In the Armageddon the colour will be chosen by a toss.

Please note: Each Match will have its own separate duration and will be streamed LIVE on the ChessBase India YouTube channel. The aim of this tournament is also to show the depth and talent of Indian chess and how strong Indian juniors are. 

Schedule:

The dates are confirmed, the timings are tentative and can change a bit.

6th December, 2 - 8 p.m.: 8 matches of Round 1

7th December, 2 - 8 p.m. : 8 matches of Round 1

8th December, 2 - 8 p.m.: 8 matches of Pre Quarter Finals

9th December, 3 - 8 p.m.: 4 matches of Quarter Finals

10th December 4-6 p.m.: Two matches of the Semi-Finals

10th December 7.30 - 9 p.m : Finals

Prizes:

Players who exit in Round 1: Rs.2000 x 16  = Rs.32,000

Players who exit in Round 2: Rs.5,000 x 8 = Rs.40,000

Players who exit in Round 3: Rs.10,000 x4 = Rs.40,000

Players who exit in Round 4: Rs.20,000 x 2 = Rs.40,000

Runner-up = Rs.50,000

Winner = Rs.1,00,000 

Total = Rs.302,000.

Additional Prize fund

For a long time we have been dabbling with the thought of starting ChessBase India YouTube channel memberships. A channel that has been made for Indian chess should have membership structure whose revenue goes back to the players. With this in mind, ChessBase India will launch its membership program during the tournament where all the money collected during the event (after dedducting 30% of YouTube charges) will be given to the top 8 finishers of the tournament in a weighted average method (8 times more for the 1st place than the 8th place). Subsequently all the money collected via the memberships will also be used for Indian chess to stage tournaments, help talented youngsters, setup training camps etc.

Important points:

1. No agreed draws before 50 moves.

2. Indian Tax laws will be applicable with regards to the distribution of the prize money.

Anti-Cheating measures will be very strong:

All players will be required to adhere to the below rules:

1. Mandatory to have two cameras

2. One Capturing the face

3. One from back which will show the player and his/her screen

4. Sharing the entire screen. 

5. Only the front face camera will be broadcasted on a live stream, however arbiters will have access to other cameras as well.

Surprise

We have a huge surprise in store and it is likely that the tournament will become even bigger with regards to the prize money. This will be announced in a couple of days! Stay tuned.

A note of appreciation

Through YouTube streaming chess players have built a very closely knit community. The efforts of chess players like Vidit Gujrathi, Anish Giri, B. Adhiban, Teimour Radjabov, Surya Ganguly, Srinath Narayanan, Soumya Swaminathan, Tania Sachdev, Niklesh Jain, ChessBase India and many others have made a big impact. But it is amalgamation of chess with the comedians that has brought in the new people to follow the sport. Led by Samay Raina's love for the game and his constant innovative ideas has built up a new viewership for the sport who hitherto weren't aware of how cool chess was! Bringing massive YouTube stars like Tanmay Bhat, Flying Beast (Gaurav Taneja), Bhuvan Bam, and many others on his channel and making them play chess has definitely brought so many new followers to the sport. But Samay himself would not have been able to go on this journey if it were not for his friends - Biswa Kalyan Rath, Vaibhav Sethia, Anirban Dasgupta, Akash Mehta, Abhishek Upmanyu and many others! And how can we forget Agadmator, the man who instilled the love of chess in these comedians! As a chess promoter since over five years now, I am proud of this wonderful chess community that we have built up in this lockdown! Thank you to each one mentioned above and viewers for making this possible.

Team of organization:

Commentary: IM Sagar Shah, Amruta Mokal and several other guests

Chief Arbiter: Vivek Sohani

Chief coordinator: Shahid Ahmed

Statistics expert: Avathanshu Bhat

Graphics: Abhyudaya Raam

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