Shubhash Pawar wins Chess Challenge 2.0 with a perfect score

by Sagar Shah - 21/08/2024

The Chess Challenge 2.0 was held at the Chembur Children's Home on 17th of August 2024. 12-year-old Shubhash Pawar won the event with a score of 6.0/6. The event was organized by Teach Chess India and sponsored by Lion's Club and many people came together to make this happen. We bring you a pictorial report of what transpired on this beautiful day.

One of the initiatives that is extremely close to our heart is the chess training that we have been doing at the Chembur Children's Home since March 2023. This home was established under the Child Care Institution (CCI). CCI houses kids who are orphans or are living away from their parents. CCIs are defined under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. They were established to provide care and protection to the children.

We started our first session in the Chembur Children's home in March 2023! And guess who was the one who came with Amruta and me? The current World Championship Challenger D. Gukesh!

Over the last year and a half we have managed to keep the training at the children's home going. Every Saturday someone from the "Teach Chess India" mission goes and trains the students. At some point we realized that a tournament within the premises would be very helpful and that is when we organized the first ever Chess Challenge tournament within the premises. It was won by Ritin Mahapatra. Seeing the success of the event, we decided to hold the 2nd edition of Chess Challenge! This time on 17th of August 2024 at the Chembur Children's Home. 59 players participated out of which 52 were from the children's home in Chembur and 7 girls came from the nearby BKN girls home. The event was sponsored by Lions Club of Bombay Uptown.

The poster of the tournament

The playing hall of the event

The time control of the event was 10 mins + 2 seconds increment and there were 6 rounds played

Just like any other tournament - when the pairings are up, everyone wants to see whom they are playing against!

The superintendent of the chembur children's home Tushar sir (left) is a good chess player!

Amol sir, the child welfare officer, who is a big fan of chess and loves the fact that the kids at the home are learning chess!

The District Governor of Lions Club in Mumbai - Manish Ladage and his better half visited the tournament

Lions Club of Bombay Uptown President Dharmen Shah with Lion Lady Auxilary Jayshree Shah - the sponsors of the event

Amol sir, the child welfare officer, gave the members of Lions Club a tour of the premises

The final round clash between Ritin and Shubhash, both of whom were on 5.0/5

The Champion of the tournament 12-year-old Shubhash Pawar. We are pretty sure that he will go on to become a world class player.

The setting of the closing ceremony

Shubhash with the winner's trophy joined by the superintendent of the home Tushar Bilavekar

Sanjana Nunicha won the best girl player prize

Final Rankings after 6 rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	35	Pawar, Shubhash	IND	6	21,5	23,5	23,50
2	8	Ghabaj, Yash	IND	5	22	24,5	19,50
3	25	Mahapatra, Ritin	IND	5	21	23	17,00
4	15	Kadam, Sahil	IND	5	18	21	18,00
5	33	Pani, Sameer	IND	5	18	19	14,00
6	5	Chavan, Vikas	IND	5	17,5	20,5	16,75
7	42	Shaikh, Raj	IND	4,5	20	22	13,50
8	22	Khan, Asif	IND	4	23	26,5	15,50
9	14	Jawale, Kalpesh	IND	4	22,5	25,5	14,50
10	46	Shaikh, Salman	IND	4	20	22,5	12,50
11	59	Waghela, Suresh	IND	4	20	21	10,00
12	28	Morya, Jitendra	IND	4	19	21	11,00
13	55	Verma, Rohan	IND	4	18,5	20,5	11,50
14	45	Shaikh, Salim	IND	4	17	19	11,00

All players

Volunteers who made this event special

This tournament would not have been possible without the amazing set of volunteers who worked very hard!

The tournament director Priyanka Ved put in a tremendous effort to make this event successful

Sagar Thorat from CSA, Mihir Vaghela and Ravindra Potawad have a nice moment together

Swapnali from CSA helped us with the organization of the event

Vidhi Karelia, who volunteered at the event wrote all the certificates!

Akshat Prajapati helping the young kids improve!

Dhruv Gangurde made sure that the girls went back as better players!

Two amazing people who have always played a big part in promoting chess - Nithin Chandan and Priyanka Ved

These beautiful trophies were designed by Abhyudaya Ram

There were not just trophies, but also medals, chess books, goodie bags and plants!

Helping us in all our tournaments - Arbiter Mayur More

Taking some amazing pictures of this event - Kartik Krishnan

Punit Singh performs at the closing ceremony as his good friend Mihir Vaghela holds the microphone

Punit Singh's heart warming performance at the closing ceremony

This event was made possible thanks to the volunteers of the Teach Chess India mission. The idea of the mission is to teach chess across the country in places where it is difficult for people to afford chess learning. This could involve children's homes, orphanages, old age homes, hospitals, prisons, public schools, slums and more.

Become a Teach Chess India Volunteer

The chess culture at the Chembur Children's Home has built up beautifully and we feel that there will be some strong players who will come out from it in the years to come!

Related news:

	Syllabus for Chess Teachers Level 1 - How to play Chess @ 08/09/2024 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Launching the Teach Chess India Mission @ 23/10/2023 by Sagar Shah (en)