Tata Steel tournament — a solid platform that takes Indian chess forward Premium

European women in sarees, equal prize money, top stars, passionate fans: Tata Steel Chess India has it all. Tata Steel Chess India has it all: European women in sarees, equal prize money, top stars, passionate fans. It's India's only elite chess event, with the world's top talents, and has seen India's golden generation of chess players threaten to dominate the world. Praggnanandhaa, Arjun, Gukesh, and Vidit are among the stars, and the tournament has been a breakthrough for many. Anand is the ambassador, and the tournament is a great opportunity for India's young talent.

They presented an unusual, but striking, sight. You normally wouldn’t expect European women in sarees on stage for the closing ceremony of a chess tournament.

They may have been wearing the unstitched Indian garment for the first time in their lives, but at the Bhasha Bhawan auditorium of Kolkata’s National Library, they managed it as well as they did the pieces on the chessboard, at the Tata Steel Chess India tournament. It was the first time that women were playing in India’s only elite chess event.

The organisers, Tata Steel, ensured that their first ever women’s tournament was special. They gave the women the same prize money as the men.

“I don’t remember a (chess) tournament where the prize-fund was the same for both men and women,” said Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine, during the draw of lots on the eve of the event. “Because such a tournament didn’t exist.”

Muzychuk was a beneficiary of the organisers’ decision to implement equal pay: she won the rapid section. A year later, she will be back to defend her title for the fifth edition of the tournament, which opens on August 31.

There is bound to be more interest in this year’s tournament, given the kind of unprecedented following in the country the recent Chess World Cup, which concluded at Baku a few days ago, had. Praggnanandhaa was very much the star in the tournament, as he made it to the final.

His compatriots had also done well there. In fact, four of the eight quarterfinalists were Indians — D. Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrathi being the others. All of them will feature at the Tata Steel Chess India.