Buddhibal Kreeda Trust Blitz on 14th April 2020

On 14th April 2020, Buddhibal Kreeda Trust will organize an open blitz event which will have a total prize fund of ₹30000 with the first prize of Rs.10,000. The entire prize fund is sponsored by Buddhibal Kreeda Trust. Entry is free for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. For everyone else the entry fee is ₹250. The event is open to players all over the world.

When we spoke to Prakash Kunte, the guiding force behind the Buddhibal Kreeda Trust and he said, "Right now all the important tournaments across India are cancelled. Hence, we at Buddhibal Kreeda Trust want to provide players a chance to fight it out and also win prize money. At the same time we would like to contribute money to a good cause and hence all the entry fees will be donated to charity. 50% of the entry fee collected will go to PM CARES fund and the other 50% will go to CM relief fund."

Date: Tuesday 14th April 2020

Time: 8.00 p.m. IST

Time control: 3 mins each (no increment)

Number of rounds: 9

Total Prize fund: ₹30000

Venue: Vishy Anand Arena in Playchess under ChessBase India room

Details of the online tournament:

Main Prizes

Best Below 1300

Best Below 1200

Best Below 1100

Best Veterans

Entry fees:

The entry fee for the event is ₹250. The tournament is FREE for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. The last date for entry is 13th of March 2020 8 p.m. IST. Registration is Closed.

All the amount collected as entry fees will be donated to PM Cares and CM relief fund.

Titled players must write to us at teamchessbaseindia@gmail.com with their playchess id to confirm their entry.

Confirmed Titled players

About the organizer of the event - Buddhibal Kreeda Trust

The tournament is organized by Buddhibal Kreeda Trust (BKT). BKT is a well-known charitable trust which conducts regular Chess Tournaments and Chess Programs in Pune. It was founded in 1998 by Prakash Kunte, GM Abhijit Kunte, WIM Mrunalini Kunte-Aurangabadkar, Nityananand Mehendale (owner of Manohar Mangal Karyalay) and Raghuvir Apte. At the time of incorporation, the Kunte family had contributed Rs. 30,000 as corpus. Today, the corpus of the trust is more than Rs. 40 lakhs. The organization strives for promoting the game of chess not only in Pune, but also in Maharashtra and India. It also does its best to support talented players by providing financial help.

Since its inception, BKT has organized approximately 150 tournaments which include Women’s National B, National Team Championship, 4 National Championships, more than 10 State Selection Tournaments, more than 13 All India FIDE Rating Tournaments and more than 100 local Chess Tournaments. BKT has also organized India’s first ever knockout chess championship with a prize fund of Rs. 8,00,000 in 2006. In this tournament, most of the GMs from India had participated.

Further, BKT also contributed towards the organization of the World Junior Chess Championship in 2014 and Maharashtra Chess League. BKT has so far distributed more than Rs. 30 lakhs in prize fund or in different types of sponsorships.

‘Laptop to Chess Players’ is an initiative of the BKT which helps in developing the budding chess players. Under this scheme, more than 20 laptops have been distributed to chess players between 2006 and 2014. Many prominent personalities and organizations contributed towards this initiative. In 2007, the program was for Pune Players only. Given below is the list of players:

Other than organising different types of chess tournaments, BKT has also supported many talented and upcoming players from Pune and Maharashtra by sponsoring them for international tournaments. Given below are the names of few players which BKT has sponsored:

1. IM Prathamesh Mokal

2. IM Abhishek Kelkar

3. WGM Soumya Swaminathan

4. Aniruddha Deshpande

5. Chinmay Kulkarni

6. Pruthu Deshpande

7. GM Abhimanyu Puranik

8. IM Harshit Raja

9. WIM Aakanksha Hagawane

10. Nikhil Dixit (Sponsorship for a tournament in India)

11. IM Rakesh Kulkarni (Accommodation sponsored by BKT in Dubai)

12. IM Sameer Kathmale (Accommodation sponsored by BKT in Dubai)

Buddhibal Kreeda Trust has also participated in various All India National Team Chess Championships by fully sponsoring a 5 player team in open and women’s categories. The BKT team won in the Women’s category at the 2004 National Team Chess Championship. In these teams many promising players were part of the team such as Amruta Mokal, WGM Soumya Swaminathan, Sneha Ghatpande, Anuprita Patil, Devangi Patankar, IM Abhishek Kelkar, Omkar Patwardhan, Sohan Phadke and Aniruddha Deshpande.

Buddhibal Kreeda Trust has been providing sports scholarship to players of the Under-8 and Under-10 age categories of Rs. 6,000/- per year to the best player in Pune for last 6 years. The Trust also provided sponsorship to prominent players of Pune for their international open chess tournaments.

The current trustees of BKT are Mr. Prakash Kunte (Managing Trustee), Mrs. Mrunalini Kunte- Aurangabadkar, Mr. Chandrashekhar Nanivadekar, Mr. Ravindra Akolkar, Mr. Chandrakant Mokashi and Mr. Sanjay Adhav.

What Buddhibal Kreeda Trust (BKT) means to me?

By IM Abhishek Kelkar

"My chess career started in 1998! The trio Mrunalini Kunte Tai (coach), Abhijit Kunte dada (my childhood idol, mentor and inspiration), Kunte kaka (fatherly figure to me, my well wisher, supporter and financial source in my difficult times) whatever I am today is because of the existence of these 3 pillars in my life! They 3 formed Buddhibal Kreeda trust in 1998, in the same year when my chess kicked off. My 1st state championship U-7 catergory was organized by BKT. Since then I am following the fantastic journey of BKT. I have witnessed every initiative of BKT, whether it may felicitation functions or laptop distribution to chess players function.

Most of the tournaments organised by BKT I had participated; Lately I am assisting Kunte Kaka in the organization. I have won few of tournaments organized by BKT. I have participated in more than 10 editions of "Shri Mahaeshwaranand Saraswati Memorial" (a strong tournament) though never got chance to hold the trophy. Looking forward to change my luck in this year!

I thank BKT and Shri.Prakash Kunte Kaka for all his inputs and efforts, for spreading chess and supporting countless chess players, their families (psychologically and financially) in last 20 years. I pray to God his love and passion for chess may increase day by day as chess needs such an amazing person for its acceptance in the society on large scales. Kudos to Kaka. I request young generation to participate in this year's Mahaeshwaranand Saraswati All India Open tournament 2018". Wishing a grand success for the tournament & BKT in coming years."

Contact and registration queries:

Mr. Shahid Ahmed (Tournament director) - 9038139510

Email - teamchessbaseindia@gmail.com

• We request all players to check their internet connection before the tournament. Minimum requirement is 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.

List of players:

How to play tournament?

Please ensure that you have a valid Playchess id. You can create one here and then buy the premium membership from the product embeds given above.

1. Download the free Windows software of Playchess

Next 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. The tournament cannot be played via mobile or tablet device.

Login or Create account

After you have installed the Client. You must login.

Enter your Playchess/ChessBase Account username and password. 

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 14th of April 2020. 7:30 p.m. IST 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 paid the entry fee will be allowed to play.

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

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, former 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.

IM Ravi Teja S, former National Challengers Champion

We (Ravi Teja&Anusha NLV) thoroughly enjoyed the tournament.it was exciting!

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, youngest GM of India

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.