Festival of Lights Heralds Record Entries
The traditional Bournvita Inter-School Chess Tournament of Mumbai, which commences immediately after Diwali – ‘The festival of Light’, continued to break its own record as it attracted record 1170 entries in its 6th edition from more than 200 Schools in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad District. The record number of entries in this edition has encouraged the organizers to stake a claim of being the biggest chess tournament in the world for school children.
This annual 11-day chess festival is eagerly awaited by the chess loving kids across Mumbai as it enables them to display their skill and set a step forward for sterner tests in state/national chess tournaments. The stake for each of the winners in the 4-age groups separately for both boys and girls: Under-8, Under-10, Under-12 and Under-15 is not only the publicity it generates in the media, both print and electronic, but also a handsome purse of Sterling Pounds 50 (Rs. 3500 approx.) sponsored by the London School of Economics and a sponsorship to participate in any one national tournament. In fact, the winners of the 2nd edition were provided sponsorship in the form of airfare to participate in the British Open Championship.
The Millennium edition of this event was inaugurated by Dr.Ramesh Prabhoo, former Mayor of Mumbai, by lighting the traditional lamp. The venue of the tournament is the sprawling big hall of the Prabhodhankar Thackeray Sports Complex, Vile-Parle (W) that has got capacity to accommodate nearly 1000 chess players. The event is organized jointly by the Kalina Recreation & Sports Club and Bombay Chess Association. The other dignitaries to grace the occasion were S/Shri Krishna Hegde, Joint Secretary, Youth Congress, Captain N. Swaminathan, Chairman, Kalina Sports & Recreation Club and D.B.Pulekar, Secretary, Bombay Chess Association and Chief Arbiter of the tournament. The brain behind this tournament is Mr.Vinay Shetty, an avid chess lover, who leaves everything behind to oversee the smooth conduct of this tournament.
The Under-8 and Under-12 tournament followed the inauguration ceremony.
The Boy’s section in Under-8 and Under-12 has attracted 178 and 271 entries
for an 11-round Swiss while the Girl’s section has attracted 77 and 45
entries respectively for a 9-round Swiss. The Under-10 and Under-15 (Open
group) will commence from 4th November after the conclusion of Under-8
and
Under-12’s section.
The event has the specialty of attracting tiny tots and there is even a special prize for the youngest participant. This year the youngest participants in the Boy and Girl’s section are Akshay Gharat (Date of Birth 15/05/96) of Father Agnel High School and Dhwani Patel (Date of Birth 04/06/96) of Utpal Sanghavi High School. These 2 kids barely manage to reach the table and are seated on 3 chairs to view the board comfortably. There enthusiasm can only be seen to be believed. While a large number of children are seasoned campaigners with a track record of having participated in many state/national level tournaments, there are absolute beginners also who have been fascinated by chess. This round saw a strange spectacle of a kid trying to eat his opponent’s King with his own King!!
The pride of place in each of this group has been given to Siddhali
Shetye (Girls U-8) of Queens Mary, who is also the former state champion,
Karan Ajinkya (Boys U-8) of Gokuldham High School, Ashwin Ganapathy (Boys
U-12) of Father Agnel High School. The Girl’s U-12 section is headed by
the twin duo of Mugdha and Purva Variyar of Gokuldham High School. The
tournament also features the full 2nd generation of Thipsay family spearheaded
by Master Kaustubh, Son of Pravin, Master Aasutosh and Ms. Aporva, son
and daughter of Abhay, Ms.Swarali and Master Swanand, daughter and son
of Satish Thipsay.
The tournament is sponsored by Bournvita (Cadburys group of Companies) with the London School of Economics and Infiniti Infotech as the co-sponsors.
The Chief Arbiter for the tournament is Shri D.B.Pulekar with Shri Praful B. Zaveri as the Deputy Chief. The team of Arbiters is Shri D.K.Desai, Shri Nitin Warde, Ms. Mitalee Karandikar Smt. Pratibha Abhay Thipsay and Shri Neville Alvares.
Schedule for 31/10/2K:
Under 12 Boys: Round No. 2,3, & 4 – 9.00 hours onwards
Under-12 Girls: Round 2 & 3 – 10.30 hours and onwards.
Under-8 Boys and Girls: Round 2 & 3 – 10.30 hours and onwards.