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South Mumbai Chess Academy celebrates 21 years of nurturing talents

by ChessBase India - 18/11/2017

21 years! That's how long SMCA has been spreading chess in the city of Mumbai, state of Maharashtra and India! In order to celebrate this momentous occasion, the fourth prize money online blitz tournament - SMCA online blitz will be held on the 3rd of December 2017. This time we have a record breaking prize fund of Rs.62,500 with first prize of Rs.15,000 and special age category prizes, as well as best female player prize! One of India's finest players B. Adhiban has already confirmed his entry. In this article we tell you all about the tournament and also about SMCA and its contribution to the world of chess.

The fourth ChessBase India Prize Money online blitz tournament is here! This time we have the highest prize money - a total prize fund of Rs.62,500 with the first prize of Rs.15,000. And what are we celebrating?! It's the 21st anniversary of South Mumbai Chess Academy (SMCA). And guess what we already have the confirmation of one of India's finest chess players B.Adhiban - the man who finished third at the Tata Steel Masters 2017. 

Adhiban's participation makes this an event to look forward to! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Date: Sunday, 3rd December 2017

Time: 10.00 a.m. IST 

Time control: 3+1, 10 rounds

Prize fund: Rs. 62,500

Venue: Playchess

Please note the time is 10 a.m. We have kept the tournament in the morning this time!

 

Gopal is one of India's top grandmasters, Laxman's blitz skills need no introduction and Dibyendu Barua - India's second grandmaster is a legend of the game!

3 young IMs have confirmed their participation: Hemant Sharma, Swayams Mishra and Sidhant Mohapatra

Prizes:

The total prize fund is Rs.62,500

(Introducing for the first time female as well as age category prizes!)

 

Main Prize list:

PlacePrize
1st15,000
2nd10,000
3rd8,000
4th5,000
5th3,500
6th2,500
7th2,000
8th1,700
9th1,500
10th1,200

Best female player: Rs.2,500

Age category prizes:

Best under-8 (born on or after 1/1/2009) - Rs.800

Best under-10 (born on or after 1/1/2007) - Rs.800

Best under-12 (born on or after 1/1/2005) - Rs.800

Best under-14 (born on or after 1/1/2003)- Rs.800

Best under-16 (born on or after 1/1/2001) - Rs.800

Special prizes:

PlacePrize
20th800
30th800
40th800
50th800
60th800
70th800
80th800

The condition to claim all of these prizes is that you have to play all the rounds of the tournament, and cannot leave it half-way.

Entry fee:

The entry fee is Rs.500. In this fee you get one month of ChessBase Premium Account worth Rs.125. Before paying the entry fee of the tournament, please ensure that you have a valid Playchess id. You can create one from here. The last date to pay entry is 2nd December 2017.

Once you have paid the entry fee, you will receive the one month serial key on the registered email address along with the procedure to extend your account.

 

All GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs get free entry to our tournament. All you have to do is write a mail to us at chessbaseindia@gmail.com along with your name, FIDE ID, FIDE Rating and the Playchess ID. If you do not have a Playchess ID please create it from here and share with us.

Registered players

Serial No.NameRatingPlaychess ID
1GM G.N.Gopal2589ilusionist60
2GM Dibyendu Barua2448Dibyendu Barua
3IM Swayams Mishra2444Mr bh6
4GM Rajaram Laxman2397Laxman
5IM Sidhant Mohapatra2371Sidhant
6IM Hemant Sharma2348Aru Baba
7Sai Krishna G V2370pennkrishna
8Priyanka Nutakki2107Chess  Queen
9Karthikeyan Jeyaprakasam1811chessmotives_com
10Rohit.S1808rohit_arjun
11Saketh Pedagandham1762Me N Chess
12Mohit Swami1549mohitswami1022
13Akavaram Ashish Reddy1496Aashish2003
14Sanditya Srivastava0Sanditya2510

For all the information about the tournament:

SMCA online blitz official page

Celebrating 21 years of South Mumbai Chess Academy

SMCA acronym for South Mumbai Chess Academy is a fine academy having its presence spread across 14 cities around  the world, from Asian continent  to the strongest base in Middle east countries,  SMCA is also one of the  rapidly expanding Indian educational training institutes in the foreign soil spreading its wings to USA and UK too in the coming months.

SMCA co-founders and directors Durga Nagesh Guttula and Balaji Guttula with five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand

G. Balaji is the head coach of SMCA

During his playing days Balaji was considered to be an expert at the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian. He would be updated with the latest theoretical developments and had an excellent feel for the opening. Here is one of his games which impressed us tremendously. You might be used to seeing an exchange sacrifice (rook for the knight on c3) in the Dragon. But in this game there were three!

Some great personalities at SMCA:

South Mumbai Chess Academy’s CEO & Director,Mr.Durga Nagesh Guttula and  his student Kush Bhagat being felicitated by the Honourable Chief Minister of  Maharashtra , Mr.Devender Fadnavis at Sahyadri guest house , Malabar Hill, Mumbai.

 

Alon Greenfeld, one of the top trainers in the world giving a simul in SMCA. Mind you, Greenfeld has been Vidit's trainer in the past and continues to work with him till date. 

Humpy Koneru, India's top female player, giving a simul at SMCA

Aleksander Goloshchapov, the man who created six Indian grandmasters, at SMCA

Achievements by students

Achievers!

Achievers II

As a part of giving back to the society SMCA gave a scholarship to Kolhapur talent Aditya Savalkar to boost his chess career

The entire team of SMCA invites you to be a part of the online blitz tournament to be held on 3rd of December. Be there!