Khelo Chess India Classical Begins, One Game Will Be Played Each Day

by Niklesh Jain - 24/03/2026

The Khelo Chess India initiative, which began in January 2023, is steadily moving towards a milestone of 100 tournaments. Currently, our second Classical FIDE Rating Tournament is underway at the Khelo Chess India Club, located at Sage International School in Bhopal. A unique feature of this event is that, following the standards of top-level international tournaments, only one round is being played each day. This allows players adequate time to prepare, rest, and analyze their games. A total of 120 players are participating in the competition. The tournament was inaugurated on the first day by Madhya Pradesh’s number one player, International Master Anuj Shrivatri, along with Sage International Group Director Dr. P. S. Rajput. In the matches played on the opening day, most of the top-seeded players secured victories. Read the full report. Photos: Ayush Jain

Khelo Chess India Classical FIDE International Rating Tournament Begins

The second Khelo Chess India Classical FIDE International Rating Chess Tournament, organized by ChessBase India, has begun today at Sage International School in Bhopal. This nine-day international rating event, being held in Central India after a long time, has attracted a total of 122 players from across the country.

The tournament was inaugurated by Madhya Pradesh’s number one chess player, International Master Anuj Shrivatri, and Sage International Group Director Dr. P. S. Rajput, who made the ceremonial first move on the top board. School Principal Bhavana Shrivastava & was also present on the occasion. The event has been recognized for FIDE rating by the World Chess Federation and the All India Chess Federation.

One round will be played each day over the next nine days. The aim is to give players enough time to prepare and rest, while also helping them get used to the format of top-level international tournaments. Along with Madhya Pradesh, players from states such as Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, West Bengal, and Odisha are also participating in the tournament.

The tournament is being held at Sage International School.

Round 1 – Easy Wins for Top-Seeded Players

In the first round, many young players can be seen taking on stronger, experienced opponents, and this becomes a great opportunity for them to showcase their talent. In this round, the club’s 6-year-old Devra Pavan Krishna faced experienced player Mukesh Saxena.

Second seed Divyanshu Gupta defeated Elvis Gohar.

Guru vs Student – Third seed Devansh Singh, who is also a trainer at the club, faced his own student Ridhan in the very first round.

Some Key Matches from Round 1

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Photo Gallery by Ayush Jain

Should I go this way or that way, what a difficult choice this is?

Focus is the key

Yes, I can see many moves at a time.

Hmm, it looks like this is the best move !!

Everyone wants to play here.

Pairings/Results

Round 1 on 2026/03/23 at 05:00 PM

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	62		Das, Kamal	0	0	+ - -	0	CM	Dolas, Aarush	1859	1
2	2		Mukesh, Kumar Saxena	1829	0	1 - 0	0		Devara, Krishna Pavan	0	63
3	64		Gohar, Alvis Barrow	0	0	0 - 1	0		Divyanshu, Gupta	1819	3
4	4		Devansh, Singh	1812	0	1 - 0	0		Gupta, Ridhaan Vaishnan	0	65
5	66		Gyanav, Jain	0	0	0 - 1	0		Riyansh, Dwivedi	1778	5
6	6		Sidharth, Upadhyay	1748	0	1 - 0	0		Jain, Jishna	0	67
7	68		Jayati, Acharya	0	0	0 - 1	0		Harsh, Goswami	1716	7
8	8		Shrivastava, Chitransh	1694	0	1 - 0	0		Jha, Sarthak	0	69
9	70		Jha, Veeransh	0	0	+ - -	0		Shashank, Seshan	1681	9
10	10		Ram, Gupta	1669	0	½ - ½	0		Kartikay, Kataria	0	71
11	72		Khandwe, Aaradhya	0	0	1 - 0	0		Ahilaan, Roy	1655	11
12	12		Hrishaan, Singh Sajwan	1644	0	- - +	0		Kundu, Ayaan	0	73
13	74		Madhvi, Thakur	0	0	0 - 1	0		Jain, Medant	1591	13
14	14		Mishra, Rahul	1591	0	- - +	0		Malviya, Anurag	0	75
15	76		Mani, Arjun	0	0	0 - 1	0	AFM	Darshil, Iyer	1586	15
16	16		Deshmukh, Dipesh	1577	0	- - +	0		Marc, Reuben Toppo	0	77
17	78		Meghana, Singh	0	0	0 - 1	0		Ishaan, Soni	1577	17
18	18		Shahid, Noor	1573	0	1 - 0	0		Mehra, Munna	0	79
19	80		Navya, Verma	0	0	0 - 1	0		Sahil, Devnani	1570	19
20	20		Swapnil, Suman	1567	0	- - +	0		Negi, Jaiansh	0	81
21	82		Nehal, Jain	0	0	½ - ½	0		Rajendra, Singh	1563	21
22	22		Biswajit, Das	1559	0	1 - 0	0		Ojvit, Patel	0	83
23	84		Paul, Shanaya	0	0	0 - 1	0		Faiyaz, Uddin	1543	23
24	24		Prateek, Pandey	1542	0	1 - 0	0		Peehu, Jain	0	85
25	86		Piyush, Kumar Pks	0	0	0 - 1	0		Diptansh, Kumar	1531	25
26	26		Chatterjee, Arindam	1526	0	1 - 0	0		Prakhar, Singh Gurjar	0	87
27	88		Prakrit, Thakur	0	0	0 - 1	0		Pruthu, Gore	1511	27
28	28	AFM	Avish, Vishal Shinde	1505	0	1 - 0	0		Pranav, Gangil	0	89
29	90		Pratham, Singh Dhakad	0	0	1 - 0	0		Aryansh, Rathore	1500	29
30	30		Himank, Tahiliani	1484	0	1 - 0	0		Raavi, Seyke	0	91
31	92		Raghav, Singh	0	0	0 - 1	0		Chaudhary, Aadavan	1465	31
32	32		Aditya, Soni	1464	0	1 - 0	0		Raghuvanshi, Ram	0	93
33	94		Rajoriya, Soumya	0	0	1 - 0	0		Amayra, Khan	1450	33
34	34		Kartik, Kumar Singh	1441	0	- - +	0		Ranak, Chourasia	0	95
35	96		Romit, Norbert Pandro	0	0	1 - 0	0		Chandrabhan, Singh Pawar	1440	35
36	36		Arnav, Pawar	1438	0	1 - 0	0		Sahare, Ishika Pramod	0	97
37	98		Sahu, Arnav	0	0	0 - 1	0	ACM	Gupta, Kushagra	0	37
38	38	ACM	Yashashree, Chakraborty	0	0	- - +	0		Salunke, Priyan Sanket	0	99
39	100		Samruddhi, Sethi	0	0	1 - 0	0		Aarohi, Dubey	0	39
40	40		Aayansh, Kumar Chowhan	0	0	0 - 1	0		Sanidhya, Khachane	0	101
41	102		Saransh, Pal	0	0	1 - 0	0		Abaneesh, Kumar Chowhan	0	41
42	42		Advika, Rathore	0	0	0 - 1	0		Sarkar, Piyush	0	103
43	104		Saxena, Sushant Kumar	0	0	- - +	0		Agarwal, Harsh	0	43
44	44		Akshat, Singh Thakur	0	0	1 - 0	0		Shaiv, Abeer	0	105
45	106		Sharma, Jitendra Kumar	0	0	½ - ½	0		Amay, Agrwal	0	45
46	46		Amrute, Sanidhya Singh	0	0	1 - 0	0		Sharma, Ridhaan	0	107
47	108		Sheikh, Arbaz	0	0	0 - 1	0		Anay, Chaturvedi	0	47
48	48		Anayra, Rathore	0	0	1 - 0	0		Shinde, Siddhant Subhash	0	109
49	110		Shourya, Lahoti	0	0	0 - 1	0		Arin, Kadbe	0	49
50	52		Atharv, Kherwar	0	0	1 - 0	0		Shreshth, Angel Jain	0	111
51	113		Shrivastava, Manindra	0	0	1 - 0	0		Atharva, Giri Goswami	0	53
52	54		Ayush, Pandey	0	0	1 - 0	0		Shrivastava, Viaan	0	114
53	116		Soni, Rohit	0	0	0 - 1	0		Bhagat, Shrinesh	0	55
54	56		Chincholikar, Varun	0	0	- - +	0		Trivedi, Dhairya	0	117
55	118		Vasdeo, Adwik	0	0	½ - ½	0		Chopde, Varchasva	0	57
56	58		Chouhan, Shivam Singh	0	0	0 - 1	0		Vishnu, Sharma	0	119
57	120		Viswakarma, Naitik	0	0	0 - 1	0		Daksh, Abhishek Jain	0	60
58	61		Daksh, Baveja	0	0	+ - -	0		Wali, Ifrah	0	121
59	122		Yadav, Shalini	0	0	1			bye

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