29 COUNTRIES COMPETE AT LOCKDOWN CHESS EVENT

Agartala, May 29: The Lockdown online International Chess Tournament, which was launched by a chess enthusiast from Tripura, has gained popularity worldwide with 29 foreign countries participating in the contest. “The tournament which completed its 87th contest with participation of 2000 players from 29 countries will end on June 9 after completing the 100mark,” the organiser, Nirmal Das said.

The participating players hail from countries including Germany, Scotland, Bangladesh, Nepal, Srilanka, Cuba, Chile, Ukraine, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, besides most of the Indian states.

Das, who launched the tournament, said a few months back he had participated in an online chess tournament controlled from Chennai with an entry fees of `200 and since then he planned to organise such an online tournament without any entry fee.

“When the lockdown was announced on March 24, I thought this tournament can play a role to keep people stay at home and safe. So, it was launched on March 28 and soon it received good response globally. The tournament is played through App called ‘Li Chess’,” he added.

The competition has all forms like Bullet, Blitz, Rapid and Classical time control games and maximum time given is two hours. — PTI