South Mumbai Chess Academy celebrates 21 years of nurturing talents
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.
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!
Prizes:
The total prize fund is Rs.62,500
(Introducing for the first time female as well as age category prizes!)
Main Prize list:
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:
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. | Name | Rating | Playchess ID |
| 1 | GM G.N.Gopal | 2589 | ilusionist60 |
| 2 | GM Dibyendu Barua | 2448 | Dibyendu Barua |
| 3 | IM Swayams Mishra | 2444 | Mr bh6 |
| 4 | GM Rajaram Laxman | 2397 | Laxman |
| 5 | IM Sidhant Mohapatra | 2371 | Sidhant |
| 6 | IM Hemant Sharma | 2348 | Aru Baba |
| 7 | Sai Krishna G V | 2370 | pennkrishna |
| 8 | Priyanka Nutakki | 2107 | Chess Queen |
| 9 | Karthikeyan Jeyaprakasam | 1811 | chessmotives_com |
| 10 | Rohit.S | 1808 | rohit_arjun |
| 11 | Saketh Pedagandham | 1762 | Me N Chess |
| 12 | Mohit Swami | 1549 | mohitswami1022 |
| 13 | Akavaram Ashish Reddy | 1496 | Aashish2003 |
| 14 | Sanditya Srivastava | 0 | Sanditya2510 |
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.
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:
Achievements by students
