Maharashtra Chess League starts from April 24

Maharashtra Chess League owners with World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand

Surya Shekhar Ganguly, one of the biggest names in Indian chess, became the most valuable player at the player auction for the Johnson Tiles Maharashtra Chess League. Ganguly, with a base price of Rs 90,000, was bought by Thane Combatants for Rs 1,15,000, a media release said today. The MCL, conceptualised on the lines of the Indian Premier League, would be played from April 24 to 29 at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana.

Participating teams are Pune Attackers, Ahmednagar Checkers, Mumbai Movers, Nagpur Royals, Jalgaon Battlers and Thane Combatants. Each team will play the other five teams once, and the top four teams would make it to the semi-finals. The MCL will be played on a rapid-chess format with games lasting for just 25 minutes.

Teenage Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, from Nashik, was the first to be auctioned and four teams posted bids for his services. The Gujrati’s base-price was Rs 60,000 but he was finally sold for Rs 95,000 to the Jalgaon Battlers. That made him the second-most valued player in the event. Grandmaster GN Gopal was the next name and a mini-bidding battle erupted for his services, with the 24-year-old from Kerala going to the Checkers for Rs 80,000. MR Lalit Babu, the reigning Commonwealth Champion, fetched Rs 80,000 and will feature for the Pune Attackers. Interestingly, Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte, remained unsold.

Thane Combatants coach, Jayant Gokhale, and team owner Sachin Awasthi, said that buying relatively unknown and underrated players was their chosen strategy. “We have Surya but apart from him we have picked up players who haven’t broken on to the international stage. This format of rapid-chess is exciting and an unknown player is a dangerous quantity,” said Gokhale.

The MCL auction also threw up a surprise as 13-year-old Abhimanyu Puranik, a FIDE Candidate Master and the world number 37 in the under-14 age-group, was given a Rs 13,000 paycheck by the Combatants.

On the women’s side, two Pune girls – Eesha Karavade and Soumya Swaminathan – became the most valuable players, both attracting bids of Rs 60,000 each. Jalgaon Battlers came up with the highest bid for Karavade, while Nagpur Royals’ came up with the winning bid for Swaminathan.

The players were divided into Grandmasters, Women Grandmasters, International Masters, women players and rated players’ categories. Each team had to buy at least one GM, one WGM one IM and a minimum of two women players. Teams also need to have at least three Maharashtra players playing in each Match, comprising six boards. Each team was given a total purse of Rs 3,00,000 in which they had to buy a minimum of six players.