Viswanathan Anand’s exhibition matches increase USD 50,000 for COVID-19 reduction

A sequence of simultaneous on-line exhibition matches that includes, amongst others, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand to help COVID reduction in India raised USD 50,000 (roughly INR 37 lakh).
The occasion was held on Chess.com with high Indian gamers and proceeds would go to Red Cross India and the Checkmate COVID initiative of the All India Chess Federation (AICF), officers of Chess.com stated.
On Thursday, Grandmaster Anand, in addition to GMs Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Nihal Sarin, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu performed simultaneous video games on Chess.com in opposition to a complete of 105 gamers.
Any participant with a Chess.com blitz or FIDE commonplace ranking of underneath 2000 might play with former world champion Anand by donating USD 150 and with the opposite 4 GMs by paying USD 25 as registration quantity.
The time management for the video games was half-hour with a 30-second increment, with the grandmasters having 15 further minutes on their clock. The GMs received with excessive scores however solely Praggnanandhaa managed to win all of his video games.
“We are facing a kind of national struggle. It varies from state to state but it’s extremely critical right now. I hope this will be a resource for the chess community. Some of us have had Covid and now hopefully they at least have someone to call and reach out,” Anand was quoted as saying by chess.com.
India is presently reeling underneath a devastating second wave of COVID-19 pandemic with greater than three lakh contemporary circumstances and over 3,000 deaths being reported every day.