In 2022, the national chess championships will see a massive surge in prize money of ₹ 76 lakh across the board.
With MPL Sports signed a $ 1 million contract with the All India Chess Federation to sponsor all of their national players’ titles, players from the U8s to the seniors will see strong gains.
The national championships, both open and women, have a prize increase of ₹ 10 lakh each, while the national juniors receive the second largest increase of ₹ 7.50 lakh and the national sub-juniors receive ₹ 6.50 lakh.
Kanpur will host the 30-lakh national championship, while the ₹ 25-lakh national women’s championship will be held in Bheemavaram from February 9th.
In addition, there will be two round robin events for women from June 30th to July 8th in Tamil Nadu and from August 12th to 20th in Goa, each with ₹ 10 lakh.
As a further welcome step, 13 International Opens are proposed nationwide. Although the minimum prize money for these is set at ₹ 15 lakh each, the total prize money is likely to run to a few billion.
“Our efforts to raise the profile of the game of chess continue,†said AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan, emphasizing, “This is why we have decided to financially help the Nationals’ host associations to keep 75% of the free collection and the The rest goes to the AICF. It used to be shared equally.
“In addition, the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) submitted by all host associations to AICF is now refundable. This deposit used to be non-refundable. “
The schedule:
State championships: 9-14 January: Junior (U-20) in Delhi (prize money ₹ 10 lakh); 17-21: Schools (Bhubanneshwar, 5 lakh); 23-31: Under-Junior (U-16) (Visakhapatnam, ₹ 9 lakh).
2nd-7th February: Amateur (Rajasthan *, ₹ 3 lakh); 9-17 Women (Bheemavaram, ₹ 25 lakh); 9-21:-Senior (Kanpur, ₹ 30 lakh);
1-7 April: U-10 (Jammu, 5 lakh); 2-5: Rapid and Blitz (Maharashtra *, ₹ 6.50 lakh); 9-16: U-8 (Gurugramm, 5 lakh); 9-16: Team (Open and Women) (Maharashtra *, ₹ 10 lakh); 18-25: U-18 (Coimbatore, ₹ 9 lakh).
2nd-9th May: U-12 (Mandya, ₹ 8 lakh); 11-18: U-14 (Ahmedabad, ₹ 8 lakh).
Suggested international openings: February 23 to March 2 (Ahmedabad); March 4-11 (Pune); 13.-20. March (Guwahati); 22.-29. March (Delhi); 21.-29. May (Kolkata); May 31 – June 18 (Odisha *); 10-18 June (Visakhapatnam); 20.-28. June (Bengaluru); -22.-30. August (Punjab *); 1-9 September (Bikaner); 11-19 September (Indore); 21.-29. September (Chhattisgarh *); 1-9 October (Uttar Pradesh *).
* denotes the host city to be decided.
