Overwhelming response for ACL's Super League that starts on 1st July 2018
For the first time ever in the history of our game, ChessBase India will bring you Academy Chess League which will witness 64 teams spanning across four different rating categories, from all over India competing with each other online for the tag of the best chess academy! The online chess league between various academies all over the globe will go on for two months in group and knockout stage. There are also prizes worth Rs. 16000 for each of the winners in four groups. Most of the spots have been taken up, but there are a few left to be filled. This maybe your last chance to be a part of the Super League!
ACL - Groundbreaking online team chess championship for academies!
On 19th of May we invited teams from all over Indian and the world to submit the names of their teams for the Super League of the Academy Chess League. We received an overwhelming response and 50 out of the 64 available slots have been filled. There is absolutely no entry fee, but the requirement for taking part is that you have got to be a ChessBase Account Premium member.
Aim of the league:
The aim of the league is to bring all the academies in India together so that players can practice under one roof! Students practice with the other students of the academy, but after a point it becomes boring to keep playing practice games with the same guys over and over again. With the Academy Chess League, if you are in Chennai, you can play against a team from Agartala! And we don't just want this to be fun. It has to be educational, it has to be material which helps you improve as a player and hence the time control decided is 45 minutes + 10 seconds increment. It will be a serious game of chess.
Teams that have already registered:
There are four tournaments that will take place simultaneously - Unrated, 1000-1400 Elo, 1400-1800 Elo and 1800-2200 Elo. We have some of the best academies taking part representing the length and breadth of the country. Here's a glimpse:
Unrated:
2. City Chess Club Bhuj - Bhuj, Gujarat
3. Dynamic Chess Academy - Rajkot, Gujarat
4. Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy - Kolkata, West Bengal
5. Dark Knights Chess Academy - Bengaluru, Karnataka
6. Innovators Chess Academy - Bengaluru, Karnataka
7. Akshayakalpa - Bengaluru, Karnataka
8. ICA Pups - Bengaluru, Karnataka
9. Children Chess Forum - Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
10. ChessBase India 'Katni Knights' - Katni, Madhya Pradesh
11. Tattva Chess Academy - Bengaluru, Karnataka
12. Pioneer Chess School - Kolkata, West Bengal
13. Matrix Chess Academy - New Delhi
14. Chess Gurukul - Chennai, Tamil Nadu
15. d'Pawn Chess Academy - Amravati, Maharashtra
16. Victorious Chess Academy - Pune, Maharashtra
Check out the pictures of players of all the teams in the unrated section
1000-1400 section:
2. Kunte's Chess Academy - Pune, Maharashtra
3. Children Chess Forum - Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
4. Dynamic Chess Academy - Rajkot, Gujarat
5. Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy - Kolkata, West Bengal
6. Akshayakalpa - Bengaluru, Karnataka
7. ICA Pups - Bengaluru, Karnataka
8. Matrix Chess Academy - New Delhi
9. Matrix Chess Club - Agartala, Tripura
10. Tattva Chess Academy, Bengaluru, Karnataka
11. ChessBase India 'Katni Knights', Madhya Pradesh
12. Kunte's Chess Academy of Excellence, Pune, Maharashtra
13. Chess Gurukul, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
14. d'Pawn Chess Academy, Amravati, Maharashtra
15. T Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai, India
Check out the pictures of players of all the teams in the 1000-1400 section
1400 - 1800 Section
2. Kunte's Chess Academy - Pune, Maharashtra
3. Children Chess Forum - Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
4. Dynamic Chess Academy - Rajkot, Gujarat
5. Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy, Kolkata, West Bengal
6. ChessBase India 'Katni Knights', Madhya Pradesh
7. Tattva Chess Academy, Bengaluru, Karnataka
8. Innovator's Chess Academy, Bengaluru, Karnataka
9. Chess Gurukul, Bengaluru, Karnataka
10. d' Pawn Chess Academy, Amravati, Maharashtra
11. Matrix Chess Academy, New Delhi
12. Victorious Chess Academy, Pune, Maharashtra
Check out the pictures of players of all the teams in the 1400-1800 section
1800 - 2200 section
2. Kunte's Chess Academy, Pune, Maharashtra
3. ChessBase India 'Katni Knights', Madhya Pradesh
4. Dynamic Chess Academy, Rajkot, Gujarat
5. Assam Chess Club, Guwahati, Assam
6. d'Pawn Chess Academy, Amravati, Maharashtra
7. Chess Gurukul, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Check out the pictures of players of all the teams in the 1800-2200 section. Note: In the 1800-2200 section it is fine to have one player above the rating of 2200.
Register Now!
Currently we have completed the quota of all the teams in the unrated section for the Super League. We need one team in the 1000 to 1400 section, four teams in 1400 to 1800 section and nine teams in the 1800 to 2200 section.
Unrated: All slots filled
1000-1400 - One team required
1400-1800 - Four teams required
1800 - 2200 - Nine teams required
All those who are interested can fill in this form and we will revert back to you. You have to be quick because the Academy Chess League begins from the 1st of July.
Prizes:
The winning team in each section wins Rs.16,000 worth of ChessBase Products. You can choose any number of ChessBase products worth Rs.16000 from the ChessBase India shop for your academy! These prizes are sponsored by ChessBase Gmbh from Hamburg, Germany. As there are four sections, ChessBase has sponsored prizes worth Rs.64,000 and we are grateful to them for their kind gesture!
Entry fee:
There is absolutely no entry fee for taking part in the Academy Chess League. All you need to be is a ChessBase Account Premium Member. You can buy the ChessBase Account from the ChessBase India shop. Three months account costs you Rs.499 and one year account costs Rs.1499.
Schedule:
The First Super League of the Academy Chess League begins on the 1st of July 2018. In general we have kept the schedule in such a way that each team has to play only one game in a week. If your game is on a weekday, we have two time slots - it could be at 5.30 p.m. or 8.00 p.m. If your game is on a weekend then we have five time slots - 10.00 a.m, 12.30 p.m, 3.00 p.m, 5.30 p.m. and 8.00 p.m. Your game would be in one of them. Each team will get to play seven games irrespective of their results. You can check the tentative schedule here.
As we do not have sixteen teams confirmed in all the sections we haven't created the pairings yet. But once the teams are confirmed the entire pairing list of the group stage of the league would be published on the all new Academy Chess League website that we are creating. We request the teams to not request us to change the schedule because changing one game would mean a lot of games and teams are affected. If any of your players are unavailable and you know it before hand, please add a player to your team. You can always choose the four players that can play in a particular match 24 hours before the match begins. Check out the team from Matrix academy, Agartala in the 1400-1800 section. They have ten players!
Rules:
1. Seeding will be decided based on top four rated players’ average rating before the start of the tournament. Seeding will not change if a higher rated player joins in the middle of the tournament. The rating list of June will be calculated for the rating of players. Players can be added in the team during the event as well. Suppose you add a player to your team in July then the rating list of July will be considered and so on.
2. The tournament is divided into – Group Stage, Semi-finals and Finals. Four groups of four teams each will be created. After a round robin group stage, the team with the highest points will move to the semi-finals. The rest of the teams will play four rounds of swiss league for places 5-16. This is important because the top 8 teams remain in the Super League for the 2nd edition, while the bottom 8 move towards the second division. The second division will begin soon.
4. All teams must submit the board order minimum 24 hours before the start of their game through e-mail at this id: academychessleague@gmail.com. Failing to do so will result in us selecting the first four players of the team.
5. Time control for each game will be 45 mins + 10 seconds.
6. Everybody must have Playchess Client installed in their computer to play the tournament. Please download the free playchess windows client today itself from here. Sign in with your ChessBase Premium Membership and get a feel of playing on the client. It is one of the best ones out there! If you have a Mac computer, you will need to run some program like Parallels or Bootcamp which will convert your Mac into windows, in order to play.
7. Premium account is mandatory. Without a premium account, the player will not be able to enter the Premium Tournament playing room.
8. All players must login at least 45 minutes before the round starts and not logout or practice among each other before the round begins.
9. Match will be attempted to restart in case of disconnection. However if a player remains disconnected for more than 15 minutes, the player will be declared lost.
10. The recommended connection speed for players: 2 mbps. In case your connection is slow please ensure that before the tournament begins you have a good internet connection. You do not want your game to be disconnected and lose a point for your team.
11. Each team should have a coordinator who is accessible through phone or whatsapp before, during and after the round of the team. The coordinator will be the single point of contact for every team in case of any technical issues.
12. The decision of the Tournament Director will be final.
For all the teams that have registered already, we request you to submit all the necessary details we have asked you in e-mail to make sure that your team gets to play in the first edition. Otherwise standby teams will get an opportunity. The information we have asked from each team is:
1.Player's name,
2. FIDE ID
3. Playchess ID
4. Playchess account validity
5. Team logo
6. Players' photo
7. Bio of the player.
All of this information will go on our upcoming Academy Chess League website, so make sure you provide genuine information and logo and photographs which will be ideal promotion not only to the players but also to the academy.
In case of any queries, write to us at academychessleague@gmail.com or call Shahid Ahmed at 09038139510
Once all the 16 spots are filled in each of the sections, the teams will be contacted and the pairings will be informed to them through the all-new Academy Chess League Website.