The launch of two closed Grandmaster events every year and increased prize money for most of the National championships are some of the key decisions taken by the All India Chess Federation at its annual General Body meeting held here on Sunday.
It was also decided to exempt the world individual champion and the world challenger from playing the national premier event to be considered for playing for the country. Also the 2650 rating cut-off to be in the Indian team has been abolished.
New format
The national premier itself will be back to an all-play-all round-robin format. The new format would have nine players who qualify from the national challengers, four top Elo rated players and one current premier champion in a 14-player event. The prize money for this had been raised from Rs. four lakh to Rs. 10 lakh, with AICF funding Rs. 6 lakh towards this.
Likewise, the prize money for the women's premier national championship will have prize money of Rs. 6 lakh, an increase from the present Rs. 2.5 lakh. The event will have 12 players all-play-all format with eight players from the national women challengers, three from the top Elo rated and the current women's premier champion.
The general body also gave its nod for India to stage eight international open tournaments in a year. The first four events are the Parsvnath in Delhi, Chennai Open, Odisha Open and the Mayors Cup in Mumbai. The next four will be in Nagpur, Pune, Gurgaon and Andhra Pradesh.
Revealing the various decisions taken at the meeting, a press release from AICF stated that increased prize money for national championship would be substantial. For example, for under-7 events it would be raised to Rs. 1.5 lakh from the present Rs. 75,000.
As for GM events, it was decided that the AICF would fund Rs. 20 lakh towards prize money — Rs. 12 lakh for men and Rs. 8 lakh for women.
The national championships would have two new events — the national school team chess championship and a national amateur chess championship for players below 2000 Elo rating.
There was a surprise visitor at the meeting. It was none other than world champion Viswanathan Anand, who was lauded for his recent victory. Anand wished the AICF all success in its endeavours.
