Let's Rebuild West Bengal together: Amphan Cyclone Fundraiser Online Blitz and Simul

by Shahid Ahmed - 19/06/2020

On 20th and 21st of June 2020, ChessBase India will be organizing the Amphan Cyclone Fundraiser ChessBase India Online Blitz Open and Simultaneous Exhibition respectively. ChessBase India has always tried to bring the chess community together for a good cause. This time as well, we are looking forward to the chess players from all across India coming together and helping the people of West Bengal who have suffered devastation and irreparable loss due to cyclone Amphan. There is no entry fee, but to participate, you have to contribute a minimum of ₹150 for Blitz Open and ₹500 for Simul. Those who donate for Simul will get to play the Blitz Open for FREE. There is no upper limit and you can donate whatever amount you are comfortable with. Entry is FREE for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs in the Blitz event. GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly and GM Dibyendu Barua will do live shows to raise funds.

Amphan Cyclone Fundraiser ChessBase India Online Blitz and Simul

On 20th May 2020, Amphan Cyclone devastated the majority of West Bengal disrupting daily life, homes and livelihood for a lot of people. West Bengal estimated total damage to be over Rs 1 lac crore (US$ 13.2 billion). To help the victims of the century's most devastating cyclone in the country, we have decided to hold two events on 20th and 21st June to raise funds. On Saturday 20th June we will hold an Open Blitz event where the minimum donation amount will be ₹150 and on Sunday 21st June, GMs and IMs of West Bengal will play a simultaneous exhibition to raise funds for the ones who have gone through trials and tribulations. The minimum donation amount for simul will be ₹500. There is no maximum limit. But note - if you donate for the simul, then you get a free entry in the blitz as well.

Amphan showed no mercy to various parts of West Bengal | Photo: Halley Goswami and Arkojyoti Bhattacharya

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly will do a ChessBase India show with Sagar to raise funds | Photo: Niklesh Jain

India's 2nd GM and West Bengal's first GM Dibyendu Barua will do a live show on 20th June | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

The following players of West Bengal will play the simul on 21st June

GM Diptayan Ghosh | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

GM Deep Sengupta | Photo: Amruta Mokal

GM Neelotpal Das

GM Saptarshi RoyChowdhury

WGM and IM Nisha Mohota

GM-elect and IM Arghyadip Das donated ₹2000 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

IM Sayantan Das | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

IM Bitan Banerjee | Photo: Bhavik Dave

IM Somak Palit | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

IM, FT and NA Neeraj Kumar Mishra | Photo: Amit Sharma

IM Suvrajit Saha donated ₹2000 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Details of the Online Blitz tournament:

Date: Saturday 20th June 2020

Time: 7:00 p.m. IST

Time control: 3 mins + 0 second increment

Number of rounds: 9

Venue: Vishy Anand Arena in Playchess

As it is a fund raising event there are no prizes, but the winner gets ChessBase's Magnus Carlsen Master Class DVD signed by the World Champion himself.

Details of the Simul

You will be randomly paired against a master. At a given point one of the master will play against six opponents.

Date: Sunday 21st June 2020

Time: 10 am IST onwards. Will go on the entire day. Each player will have a different time slot to face a master.

Time control: 10 mins + 5 seconds increment

Additional benefit: After the game, players will analyze the gamese with participants via Zoom/Google Meet.

Donate to the cause:

There is no entry fee for the event. But you have to donate an amount to take part in it. The minimum donation required is ₹150 for Blitz and ₹500 for Simul. There is no upper limit to the amount you would like to donate. Entry will be free for the Blitz for those who play the Simul. Even if you are unable to play at the event, you can still donate towards this good cause. Each one of us can definitely afford ₹150. The amount raised will be donated to CRY foundation working for Amphan relief.

If the above button doesn't work, you can contribute from here. Foreigners can donate via Paypal

You can also directly contribute via the Google Pay id: chessbaseindia@okhdfcbank

Donors who will play the tournament

List of Blitz players

Sl.no.	Name	Playchess ID	Rating	Donation
1	GM Deep Sengupta	Deep Sengupta	2527
2	GM Vishnu Prasanna	Fidodido	2476
3	IM Arghyadip Das	Arghyadip	2453
4	GM Diptayan Ghosh	Diptayan	2441
5	IM Aditya Mittal	vinniethepooh	2438
6	IM Sayantan Das	Ambitious	2431
7	GM Neelotpal Das	Mandrake	2425
8	GM Laxman R R	LAXMAN	2411	200
9	IM Bitan Banerjee		2404
10	IM Krishna Teja N	N_Krishna teja	2378
11	Ajay Karthikeyan	skkeyan	2315	500
12	IM Somak Palit	Toton11	2300
13	Aditya Samant	adityass	2297	150
14	GM Saptarshi RoyChowdhury		2287
15	WFM Savitha Shri B	Savithashri	2261	150
16	CM Dev Shah	toosieslide	2254	1000
17	Utsab Chatterjee	CROWN 7	2239	150
18	Shiv Shome	kingofall	2237	150
19	IM Neeraj Kumar Mishra		2232
20	Souhardo Basak	Souhardo	2216	1000
21	IM Suvrajit Saha	Suvrajit Saha	2198	2000
22	FM C J Arvind	Junosource	2123	200
23	CM Samrug Narayanan	Pigson7th	2100	725
24	Alan Diviya Raj	Michaelraj_98	2033	650
25	Meghna C H	MEGHNA	1985	500
26	Samriddhaa Ghosh	Katoptris	1910	500
27	Arunava Bhattacharjee	Arunava	1857	150
28	Anand Sivasankar	anandfan	1853	150
29	Abhijith Pran	kaspy2011	1847	501
30	Suvojit Paul	Sp0623	1758	150
31	Anuj Gandhi		1755	500
32	Vedant Kumar Saravana	ved960	1718	150
33	Robbin Bhagwan	robbinbha	1708	150
34	Swayham P Das	swayham	1675	150
35	Rudrashish Chakraborty	Rudra_c	1608	500
36	Dhruv Haldankar	Haldankardhruv	1588	500
37	Sudhir Tharayil	sudhir161	1557	500
38	Jayaram Vijayakumar		1391	150
39	Shashank Karanam	SHASHANK KARANAM	1364	150
40	Sathvik Adiga	sathvik_adiga11	1359	250
41	Viraj Gogte	virgog	1337	500
42	Surucha Shanbhag	Crazyintrovert	1324	150
43	Hrishikesh Kumar Banik	hkbanik	1310	500
44	Padmaesh M K	Mangakadu	1293	500
45	Srijak Sengupta	sansengu	1288	500
46	Pratik Das	daspratik96	1287	500
47	WCM Shriyana S Mallya	Sadhika	1277	150
48	Harshini Anand	harshinianand	1265	500
49	Debarpan Saha	Debarpan	1188	150
50	Kunal Batra	HumanityFirst	1147	700
51	Ganapathi R Mysore	ganaballu	1026	500
52	Abhishek		0	150
53	Aditri Shome	erica2020	0	500
54	Ananda Roy Chowdhury	sharingan_anand	0	150
55	Anand Wataney		0	800
56	Ashwin Mahalingam		0	500
57	Atmaj C H	chnivas	0	500
58	Bhavesh Vyas	Bhaveshvyas_01	0	500
59	Devraj	Devraj	0	150
60	Mayur Gondhalekar	gonda	0	500
61	Mohit Jain	rish2812	0	500
62	Omkar	Kkk	0	200
63	Priyam Dutta	pridutt4041	0	150
64	Rahul Arora		0	500
65	Rupesh Reddy	Romannumbers	0	150
66	Sahil Siddiqui	Copyninja	0	300
67	Sanmitro Patra	Sanmitro Patra	0	150
68	Shikhar Karn	Shikhar1234	0	500
69	Sougata Bose	sougata	0	960
70	Subhash Jog	sjo1267	0	150
71	Tharanivelan S	tharani	0	150
72	Uddalak Chattopadhyay	Uddalak	0	500
73	Vaishnav S	rightedge	0	500
74	Yogesh	ym27	0	150

List of Simul participants

Sl.no.	Name	Playchess ID	Rating	Donation
1	Souhardo Basak	Souhardo	2216	1000
2	Alan Diviya Raj	Michaelraj_98	2033	650
3	Meghna C H	MEGHNA	1985	500
4	Samriddhaa Ghosh	Katoptris	1910	500
5	Abhijith Pran	kaspy2011	1847	500
6	Anuj Gandhi		1755	500
7	Rudrashish Chakraborty	Rudra_c	1608	500
8	Dhruv Haldankar	Haldankardhruv	1588	500
9	Sudhir Tharayil	sudhir161	1557	500
10	Viraj Gogte	virgog	1337	500
11	Hrishikesh Kumar Banik	hkbanik	1310	500
12	Padmaesh M K	Mangakadu	1293	500
13	Srijak Sengupta	sansengu	1288	500
14	Harshini Anand	harshinianand	1265	500
15	Kunal Batra	HumanityFirst	1147	700
16	Ganapathi R Mysore	ganaballu	1026	500
17	Aditri Shome	erica2020	0	500
18	Anand Wataney		0	800
19	Ashwin Mahalingam		0	500
20	Atmaj C H	chnivas	0	500
21	Bhavesh Vyas	Bhaveshvyas_01	0	500
22	Mayur Gondhalekar	gonda	0	500
23	Mohit Jain	rish2812	0	500
24	Pathik	cchess1	0	500
25	Rahul Arora	rahularora12	0	500
26	Shikhar Karn	Shikhar1234	0	500
27	Sougata Bose	sougata	0	960
28	Subhash Jog	sjo1267	0	500
29	Uddalak Chattopadhyay	Uddalak	0	500
30	Vaishnav S	rightedge	0	500

Confirmed titled players

GM Vishnu Prasanna | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Blitz King and Playchess regular GM Laxman R R is the first titled player to confirm his participation | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

IM Krishna Teja N

Donors who will not play the tournament

Sl.no.	Name	Donation
1	Carsten Michel	8000
2	IM Terry Renato	1200
3	Chaitanya	1000
4	Arjun Ravikumar	500
5	Debarshi Mukherjee	500
6	Martin Krug	346
7	Parthiv Kava	275
8	Arkadeb Mukherjee	200
9	Sumit Kumar	200
10	Sumit Roy	200
11	Manjit Singh Yadav	150

Total donation received so far

₹41258

Where will the donation be made?

We at ChessBase India want to take immense care that each and every penny that we receive from the chess community is used for the right cause. For this fundraiser we will be donating to the well known organization that is doing good work on the ground - CRY (child relief and you).

Here is the appeal made by CRY related to Amphan cyclone relief work:

Dry ration being distributed

A definite relief for these affected families

District of East Medinipur:

The district of East Medinipur has been one of the worst affected districts. As per government estimates, 11 out of 26 blocks have been critically affected. Approximately 911 villages and over 10 lakh people (approximate number of children would be 4 lakhs), in 2 lakh households have been impacted. About 1,23,000 houses (mostly kuchha houses) have got severely damaged. Sea water entered vast area of croplands as embankments caved in, due to heavy rain. Reports of crop damage have been pouring in. After every disaster we witness an exodus of people moving from the affected villages to the cities, in search of alternate livelihood and get employed mostly in the unorganized sector. At this juncture, Covid poses an additional challenge as there is restriction on movement and lack of alternate livelihood opportunities. For children, while schools are closed indefinitely for COVID 19, the super cyclone has posed an additional challenge and reports from ground zero indicate a spurt in emotional outbursts, anxiety and fear in them. Those who have been evacuated and are in relief camps need to adapt to their new environment, instances of child abuse are also not unheard of. Health hazards are likely to increase, especially risks of Covid 19, specially for the ones who are in relief camps. Lack of adequate wash basins and toilets will add to the problem. Particularly vulnerable are the children and expecting mothers.

2. Urban Settlements (in and around Kolkata): South Dumdum Municipality

The scale of damage in terms of number of households affected is yet to be ascertained. The broad contours of the vulnerability that people face, is similar:-

· Houses destroyed and damaged

· Water scarcity and no electricity

· Physical and mental health conditions would largely be the same.

· Loss of livelihood

Action needed

[1] Immediate (providing ready access to basic human needs)

· Provision of dry ration for the month of June 2020

· Doctors and volunteers organizing health camps especially for children and pregnant mothers. (June – November 2020)

· Support children and their families to overcome acute anxiety and fear by making available psychosocial inputs by trained counsellors and psychologists. (June 2020 to March 2021).

· Linkage with Animal Resources Development for organising camps for ARD medicines and animal fodder which would be an immediate to maintain their livestock while also gradually extending to distribute fish feed for fish farming in East Medinipur intervention area.

[2] Medium term and long term (helping families recognize strengths and resources

· Training parents: on effective parenting for children who are traumatized by the pandemic and the cyclone. Act to reduce harm resulting from alcohol and other substance abuses. Making sure that boys, girls and men and women have equal access to services (October 2020 to March 2021)

· Information on climate change and its impact at the local level and ways in which risks can be minimized and people can be better prepared to be part of children’s co-curricular learning in schools or in CRY’s adolescent groups. (November 2020 to March 2021)

· Build human capacities: of women’s groups, adolescent children and farmer’s groups / other influencers to be adequately prepared to handle and reduce risks of disaster. A few indicative activities,- (July 2020 onwards)

1. Identify women and adolescent leaders and train them on taking up a leadership role in flood/ cyclone preparedness and risk reduction. Also mobilise them as role models. This plays the role of a disaster management committee.

2. Establish a community support system to ensure that the protection and evacuation of pregnant women, children and other at risk groups are prioritized

3. Adolescents and parents can prepare food contingency plans for the months that are disaster prone.

4. Support communities and local government to prepare contingency plans that list response options for food security during cyclone emergencies and how the most vulnerable people are assisted. Ensuring that school buildings are safe and disaster proof.

5. Equip farmers to identify local seed varieties that are able to withstand flood and cyclone and are saline tolerant. Provide training on seed multiplication, safe seed storage, community seed banks. (only for rural)

·Advocacy and establish linkages with government departments

1. Advocating with the government such that the housing schemes of the government use disaster proof material. (June 2020 onwards)

Request for support

We would like to request you for supporting our intervention in South Dumdum Municipality and East Medinipore.

With your support we would like to reach out to 500 households with dry rations and 500 children who are battling acute anxiety, fear and depression in the aftermath of the disaster for a period of nine months.

Requirement for Funds:

Immediate:

Household Dry Ration(assumption: per family 5/6 members) 500 households for 3 weeks	Rice (10 kilos) for 3 weeks for each household	5000	30	1,50,000.00
	Pulses (2 kilos) for three weeks for each household	1000	80	80,000.00
	Oil (2 lt) per month for three weeks for each household	1000	110	1,10,000.00
	Sugar (2 kilos) for three weeks for each household	1000	45	45,000.00
	Nutrela (1 kilo) for three weeks for each household	500	150	75,000.00
	salt (1 kilo) for 3 weeks for each household	500	20	10,000.00
Transportation, distribution and packaging cost	Conveyance cost for transportation, distribution and packaging (material and labour)	1	30000	30,000.00

Total: Rs.5,00,000

Psycho social support for Children for a period of nine months:

Frontline workers / trainers / counsellors for providing psycho social inputs, disaster preparedness and resilience building activities	Stipend @ 10000 per month for 9 months for 3 frontline workers and 1 Programme Specialist	36	10000	3,60,000.00
	Telephone and internet cost @ 2800 per month for 9 months (4 mobile phones call charges and one data card)	9	2800	25,200.00
Cost of meetings, training programmes and consultations	( 3 such gatherings every month for a period of 9 months @ 1500 (cost includes, teaching learning aids, communication material, conveyance and refreshment for participants)	27	1500	40,500.00
Programme and financial management, monitoring and evaluation	Part salary of financial team lead @ 10000 per month for 9 months	9	10000	90,000.00
	2 visits by programme specialist and finance team lead @10000 per trip (applicable only for east midnapore)	2	10000	20,000.00
	Audit fee	1	15000	15,000.00

Total: Rs. 5,50,700

Total need for funds = immediate + nine month support = Rs.5,00,000 + Rs.5,50,700 = Rs.10,50,700

Your support will not just provide dry ration but also a hope for these people in difficulty due to the cyclone and covid19 situation

How to play the tournament:

Please ensure that you have a valid Playchess id. You can create one here.

Contact:

For registration queries contact:

Mr. Shahid Ahmed (Tournament director) - 9038139510 (Entry confirmations will be done via site only, no whatsapp/phone call confirmation of entries)

Email - teamchessbaseindia@gmail.com

• We request all players to check their internet connection before the tournament. Minimum requirement should be at least 2 mbps. No phone calls/messages will be entertained once the tournament starts from 8 p.m. IST onwards. All queries must be resolved before the tournament. Each player is responsible for their internet connection, organizers will not be held responsible for any player's connectivity issues.

How to play tournament?

1. Download the free Windows software of Playchess

Firstly you have to download the free native Windows software from here. If you have Mac OS or Mac Computer, then you have to use some VMWare to run it as Playchess Desktop Client has native support on Windows OS only.

Login or Create account

After you have installed the Client. You must login.

Enter your Playchess username and password if you have one. (Note, for all the ChessBase Account Premium members, your login credentials will work). If you do not have a Username, you must click on "Create New Player Name" and create a new account. Alternatively, you can also create it here. This is free of cost and gives you free access to Playchess for a few days.

The tournament will take place in the Vishy Anand Arena in the ChessBase India room. Registered players should be online and logged into Playchess at least 30 minutes before the start of the tournament to confirm your entries on 20th of June. 7.15 p.m. would be a good time.

Click on the ‘Players’ Tab and then click on ‘Join Event’. The Sysop (Tournament Director) will accept your entry. Only those who have donated the money will be allowed to play.

Note: The Playchess id, while donating the amount and playing the tournament should be the same.

How to play the Simul on 21st of June:

Step 1 of creating an account and downloading playchess software is the same as above.

2. Locate Simul with Titled Players arena under Simultaneous Exhibition room.

3. Wait at Simuls with titled players arena 15 minutes before your time slot, so that the Master can start immediately after the previous batch of games complete and s/he does not have to wait.

4. After the entire batch gets over, the Master of Simul will explain the game to the players via Zoom/Google Meet/Skype. The link will be mailed to you.

About ChessBase India Foundation

ChessBase India Foundation has indulged in raising funds not only for the talents of Indian chess but also on issues of national importance by galvanizing the chess community together.

₹174463 was raised for the floods that took place in Kerala

A ChessBase Online tournament was held for the matryrs of Pulwama and an amount of ₹101973 was raised

Chess players raised ₹33121 through Let's Rebuild Odisha ChessBase Online tournament

Rs.1,27,003 was raised in the memory of Indian chess legend Rafiq Khan and donated to his wife Zahida Khan

Rs.3,69,137 raised for the PM Cares fund for Covid19 relief

You can also make a direct donation to the bank account of ChessBase India Foundation which will be added to the amount of donation for the cause:

Name :- ChessBase India Foundation
A/C. No. :- 50200031999591
Bank Name: HDFC Bank.
Type of Account: Current Account
Branch Name :- GHATKOPAR EAST-TILAK ROAD
Branch Address :- 001 / 002,Samyak Darshan,Junction Of Tilak Road& Vallabh Baug Lane,Mumbai,
IFSC CODE :- HDFC0000118

All the contributors will be mentioned in a separate article which will be published when the tournament ends and the donation is made.

Know more about ChessBase India Foundation here.

About online tournaments on Playchess by ChessBase India:

ChessBase India has organized innumerable online events successfully. Here is some feedback about the quality of the events:

GM Vaibhav Suri, winner of 2nd ChessBase Online Blitz tournament

The tournament was conducted quite smoothly and a quite "fun Sunday" event. The participation of Adhiban & Sethuraman definitely added the spark to the event. I guess an Online Blitz Festival would be the next way to go (with different formats - Chess960, Bughouse, Bullet etc). Overall really happy with such events. Way to go!!

GM R R Laxman, multi-time National Blitz Champion

I thank the Chessbase India team once more for their strenous and tireless endeavour to popularise blitz events in India. Considering the fact that the present day time control even in classical format ( unlike the yesteryears) demands quick reflexes and blitz skills , I feel that the entire Chessbase India team is doing an exemplary and praiseworthy job. A boon for Indian chess !!!. Though my performance this time was not satisfactory ,I hope to excel and cherish more pleasant memories from my side in the forthcoming editions of Chessbase India blitz events.

Tushar Bohra, father of Kanishk Bohra

Thanks for enrolling Kanishk for the event. He had a great time playing the games. And a great overall experience.

D Gukesh

I am extremely happy to have participated in my first online blitz tmt conducted by ChessBase India and loved the experience and thrill. from the start to the finish its professionally conducted and got the rare opportunity to play several high-class players in a single event and looking forward for its next event

Priti Mahendru, mother of Jaiveer Mahendru

This was our second chessbase online blitz event. My son is 8 years and it was an absolute thrill for him to be playing against titled players ! Thanks a lot for organizing this. We look forward to more such events !

Kushagra Mohan

I was happy the way the tournament was conducted. No problems at all. You just keep increasing the prize money and that is a big improvement.Cannot hope for more.

Links

Amphan destruction covered by The Hindu, Deccan Herald, CNN, BBC and The Print among many more.

Official website of CRY

Related news:

	Amphan Cyclone Fundraiser Blitz, Simul and Live Stream raises ₹58193 @ 09/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Last Chance to play Simul in Amphan Cyclone Fundraiser tomorrow @ 20/06/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)