Covid stricken India out as Asian Chess Championship is set to begin

The Asian Individual Chess Championship 2021 will take place 21-30 May. 87 players (21 GMs and 21 IMs) will fight for 8 qualification spots for the FIDE World Chess Cup 2021.

This time the qualification event for the World Cup will not feature any Indian participants. The Covid-19 crisis that is unfolding in the country has prevented the India Chess Federation to field any players.

We had earlier slotted Chennai and Pune as the two cites which would host the players. But the lockdown meant that players from other cities couldn’t make it.

Bharat Singh Chauhan, AICF secretary in an interview with Prasad Ramasubramanian

Asian Continental 2021 is a hybrid event

The Asian Continental will be a hybrid format, with 9 rounds, Swiss system. The so-called “hybrid competition” is a new format where the games are played online, but the participants are physically present in a public place like a club, federation headquarters, hotel, etc. No fewer than two arbiters, a local chief arbiter, and a local technical arbiter must be present. If more than 10 players are in the playing venue, then additional arbiters are required one extra arbiter for each increase of one to 10 players. Cameras will be installed to give a panoramic view of the playing hall, and each player will be supervised by an individual camera as well. If the computers on which the games are played are not provided by the local organizer, a Zoom call with screen sharing is mandatory.

Hybrid chess is the new normal

Hybrid chess is thriving all around the world. Another two hybrid continental events – the European Qualification Chess Tournament (follow live here) and the American Continental Championship – are starting parallel to the Asian Continental event. Earlier this month we saw the hybrid version of Mitropa Cup 2021, where Italy impressed not only with quality chess, but also with their amazing venue (ed. note: the photo associated with this article on the main page of Chessdom is exactly from this venue).

Hybrid chess is a fantastic way to keep the community going through the difficult to travel times. At the same time over the board chess is making a slow comeback. We see the African Chess Championship 2021 being played OTB. Several children events in Serbia, Andorra, Romania, Nicaragua, etc are also making their way. Bulgaria impressed with an event with 262 players in the same hall.

Asian Continental 2021 participants

Top seeded are GM Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI), GM Lu Shanglei (CHN) and GM Amin Tabatabaei (IRI). The prize fund of the event is 16.000$, with 5.000$ reserved for the 2021 Asian Champion. Here is the full list of players.

More information:

Asian Continental Chess Championship 2021 will be played in a hybrid format, 9 rounds, swiss system. The time control will be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

Each round of the event will be played through Tornelo online platform, starting from 11:00 CEST.
Live games from the top boards will be daily on Chessdom.com.