Maharashtra Chess Association hosts grand five-day Blitz Grand Prix

While the country is battling with coronavirus and almost every other sport has taken a hit, online chess thrives despite the hurdles as LetsUp brings a unique five-day Blitz Grand Prix tournament that commenced on June 3 and hosted by the Maharashtra Chess Association.

The Blitz tournaments will take place every Wednesday with a total prize fund of INR 155000 each having the total prize fund of INR 25000 and top five GP finishers will get a total of INR 30000. Each of the tournament which will be hosted every Wednesday from June 3 to July 1 will be sponsored by Nasik District and Novel, Ahmednagar District and Narendra Firodia Unicorp, Pune District and Amanora, Jalgaon District and Jain Irrigation and h2e, and lastly, the Sangali District and Chitale Bandhu.

Entry is free for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. Entry fee for others is ₹250 for each tournament and ₹1,000 for registering all five events of the GP. The event is open to players all over the world. Registration for each event will close on the previous day of event i.e. Tuesday at 8 p.m. IST.

A player would get GP Points for finishing in the top 10 of every event. At the end of five events, all the points will be added. However, only the score of the best four events will be considered for the Grand Prix Prize money. For eg. If a player finishes first, second, third, fourth, and fifth in the five events, then his/her score of only the first four events will be counted.

GM Vaibhav Suri

The five-day event will see popular names from India and abroad taking part, which includes Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, P Iniyan, Andres Carlos Obregon, Bilel Bellahcene, among others.

Grand Prix points will be earned after participation in every tournament. The individual with the maximum points will be awarded the prize money. In case of a tie, the prize money will be shared. The entry fee can be paid at mcgrandprix.chessbase.in.

Day 1 results

On June 3, GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan won LetsUp MCA GP Blitz 1. Vugar scored an unbeaten 8.5/10 to win the tournament. Four players -- Vaibhav Suri, Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara of Peru, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa -- finished a half-point behind the champion at 8.0/10 and were placed second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.

On June 3, GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan won LetsUp MCA GP Blitz 1

The Azerbaijani GM currently leads the GP standings and he will receive ₹6500 for winning Blitz 1. Vaibhav will get ₹4000 and Martinez won ₹2500 cash respectively.

Total 132 players including 28 GMs, 26 IMs and 10 WIMs from India, Algeria, Argentina, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Peru, Russia, Serbia, USA, Uzbekistan took part in this 10 Round event.