Chess Super League is an online

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...

organized by Samay Raina,

ChessBase ChessBase is a German company that develops and sells chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates an internet chess server for online chess. Founded in 1986, it maintains and sells large-scale databases containing the moves of recor ...

India, Nodwin Gaming. Players in the tournament, consist of some of the Top International Grandmasters, Indian Grandmasters, International Masters and Indian Junior Players, which are grouped into 6 teams. The first iteration of the tournament kicked off on 11 October 2021 on chess.com, with a prize fund of . The entire event was streamed on Samay Raina's YouTube Channel.

Format

The games will be played with a time control of 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment. The first five days will see a league stage with different pools, from which the top four teams will qualify for the playoffs. The teams that finish first and second will play Qualifier 1, and the teams that finish 3 and 4 will play the Eliminator 1. Eliminator 2 consists of the loser of Qualifier 1 against the winner of Eliminator 1. The winner of Eliminator 2 goes to the finals to face off with the winner of Qualifier 1.

Teams (Season 1)

The players are six top grandmasters (male and female), six top players from India (male and female), and six top Indian juniors (boys and girls). One player from each of these 6 brackets are clubbed into a team, leading to a total of 6 teams that will be spearheaded by franchise owners who will support and represent their squad throughout the league.

Results (Season 1)

The first season was won by Zakir Khan's Pivotal Pawns at an Armageddon clash against Tanmay Bhat's Kingslayers on 17 October 2021. The finals saw a two round event with round 1 being won by The Kingslayers and Round 2 being won by Pivotal Pawns, to force a tie break between

Zhansaya Abdumalik Zhansaya Abdumalik (; ; born 12 January 2000) is a Kazakhstani chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM) since 2021. She is the first Kazakhstani woman and the first woman from Central Asia, and the 39th woman ove ...

and

Nana Dzagnidze Nana Dzagnidze ( ka, ნანა ძაგნიძე; born 1 January 1987) is a Georgian chess player. She was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2008. Dzagnidze was a member of the gold medal-winning Georgian team in the Women's Che ...

which was won by the former.

Controversies

The first season saw massive controversies being sparked. In one of the matches, a draw was offered by

Vidit Gujrathi Vidit Gujrathi (born 24 October 1994) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Gujrathi attained the title of grandmaster in January 2013, becoming the 30th player from India to do so. He is the fourth Indian player to have crossed the Elo rating of 27 ...

, before move 40, which was, according to rule-book, illegal, and thus, the arbitrators awarded the win to his opponent, which sparked rage from Vidit's end for not receiving any warning. In another instance,

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru Nakamuraarbitrators An arbitral tribunal or arbitration tribunal, also arbitration commission, arbitration committee or arbitration council is a panel of adjudicators which is convened and sits to resolve a dispute by way of arbitration. The tribunal may consist of ...

as a use of external aid, and thus, deemed illegal, with a win being awarded to his opponent. Hikaru Nakamura, in another instance, was playing

Chess.com Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...

's Titled Tuesday and Chess Super League's matches simultaneously, which was, according to the viewers, unethical for his team, and his opponent. He and his team, would later lose the matchup, which might have been a crucial turning point.

References

{{Online chess events, state=expanded Team chess competitions Chess.com competitions Chess in India