Checkmate COVID Simul Featuring Viswanathan Anand
GM Viswanathan Anand, as well as GMs Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Nihal Sarin, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, will be offering simultaneous exhibitions on Chess.com to support COVID relief in India on May 13 at 19:30 IST/7 a.m. PDT/16:00 CEST. All proceeds go to RedCross India and the Checkmate COVID initiative of the All India Chess Federation (AICF).
IM Danny Rensch and Samay Raina will host the live stream on Chess.com/tv. To participate in the simul, players must have a Chess.com blitz or FIDE standard rating of under 2000 and will be required to make a donation of $25 during the registration process, or $150 in order to play the former world champion Anand [Editor's note: All spots for the simuls have been filled!]. Chess.com will also accept donations before and during the broadcast and will match all donations up to a total of $10,000.
With over one hundred games running concurrently across all simuls, a time control of 30 minutes with a 30-second increment will be used for all games. The grandmasters giving the simuls will have 15 extra minutes on their clock.
Registration form for simul with other GMs is now closed:
Registration form for the Anand Simul is now closed:
There was a preliminary 24 Hour Arena event on Saturday, May 8, where the highest-finishing Indian player won a free simul seat to face Anand.
Throughout the week there will also be daily social media contests with giveaways! Stay tuned to Chess.com India on Twitter for updates.
For those of you who would like to contribute to this great cause but don't necessarily want to participate in a simul, you can donate here or click the button below. Please remember that Chess.com will be matching all donations up to $10,000 total!
