Chess Anand & 4 GMs Covid relief fund matches raises $5K

Chennai, May 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) The online chess game site www.chess.com has already raised $5,000 towards Covid-19 in India in general and also to assist chess players affected by the pandemic, said an official.

The website raised the sum through persons who had donated to play against five time World Chess Champion Grandmaster (GM) V.Anand and four other GMs Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika, Nihal Sarin and R.Praggnanandhaa on May 13 evening.

The five GMs will play simultaneous games online.

According to Chess.com it will match donations up to $10,000.

All funds will go to Red Cross India and the Checkmate Covid fund of the All India Chess Federation (AICF).

While 70 per cent of the funds raised will be given to Red Cross India the balance 30 per cent will be given to AICF.

The Chess.com official told IANS that there are 100 slots - 20 of those are to play Anand, at a price of $150, so that raised $3,000 with all slots booked.

Each of the remaining four GMs will play 20 simultaneous games donating $25 and a sum of $2,000 raised as the slots were all booked.

"When we start the show, we'll have a target of $15,000 and will kick-off the show with $5,000 raised. How much is raised depends on viewership," the official said.

The games will streamed on ChessCom India Twitch stream + YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnqNvZFw6EuigqlaiIunMWg) plus Chess.com/TVA

Recently the AICF Secretary told IANS that a sum of Rs 60 lakh has been raised till date under the Checkmate Covid initiative to provide financial assistance to chess community members affected by Covid-19.

Source: IANS