The oldest of the three tournaments under the EKA initiative, The IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Chess Tournament commences on December 30, 2017, in Mumbai and will cater to two categories, the U-13 Category, and the Open Category.
While the U-13 Category will allow for participation of unrated players, the open category is limited to FIDE-rated players and has the confirmed participation of more than 20 Grandmasters including Abhijeet Gupta from India, Ivan Rozum from Russia, Timur Gareyev from USA and David Alberto from Italy. Srija Seshadri, a Woman International Master from India is currently the highest ranked female participant in the Open tournament.
With a prize purse of INR 12,00,000/- and INR 8,00,000/- announced for the Open and U-13 category respectively, the U-13 Championship is the world’s richest chess tournament targeting this age group.
Commenting on the event, Mr. Praful Zaveri, founder of Indian Chess School shared, “With registrations from across 21 countries, including over 20 Grandmasters, we must not move our focus away from the amazing display of talent in the U-13 category. These participants don’t have too many platforms to challenge their skills often competitively and in a championship such as this we provide them with the ideal environment for them to hone their skills and understand their abilities when measured against an international player in the same age group.”
The championship being conducted under the auspices of All India Chess Federation (AICF), All Marathi Chess Association (AMCA) & Mumbai Suburban District Chess Association (MSDCA) will be held at the Mount Litera International School, Bandra Kurla Complex and shall be played under the FIDE Laws of Chess for a total of 09-rounds on a Swiss-League basis.
With announcing these championships under the EKA initiative, Senior Management at IIFL Investment Managers also announced their association with fourteen-year-old Aryan Joshi, who aspires to the first Indian visually challenged International Master. Aryan who has been associated with the group for the last year, is one of the first sports-people to be individually supported under EKA.
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