India - Israel Chess Match in New Delhi

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran will spearhead the Indian challenge when the Indian team takes on Israel in a unique match spread over three days.

Press release by the Delhi Chess Association

An initiative of the All India Chess Federation under the aegis of World Chess Federation and with the support of Embassy of Israel in New Delhi, the event will be held at Airport Authority of India Officers’ Institute, Safdarjung Airport, New Delhi from 2nd to 4th April 2012. Official website.

The year 2012 is special for both India and Israel as far as the game of Chess goes. From May 10th this year, first sons in Chess from both countries – Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand – will battle it out for the ultimate title of the world champion in Moscow.

This match is being organized as a curtain raiser to the World Championship.


The unique match will be played over three days. Besides Sasikiran, the second highest rated player in the country after Anand. Grandmaster and current National Champion Abhijeet Gupta, Grandmaster B Adhiban and Grandmaster G N Gopal complete the Indian line up.

From Israel, famous and highly regarded Grandmaster Illya Smirin will don the top board and he will be assisted by Grandmaster Tal Baron, Grandmaster Vitaly Golod and Gil Popliski.

The match will be spread over three rounds and each player will play against all players of the other country at least once. There will be 12 games in all.

Sponsored by the Airport Authority of India, the match is unique in more than one ways. For the first time ever, there will be Blindfold, Rapid and blitz games together in the match. The blindfold will be played with the player only able to see the last move played by his opponent.

Apart from the blitz games, both blind fold and rapid games will have an identical time control of 25 minutes for the entire game with a ten second increment after every move is played. The blitz games will have three minutes with an increment of two seconds per move.

The match is likely to be followed through the world wide web. All the games will be beamed live through the Internet.

Statement from Vishwanathan Anand, World Chess Champion

“I am happy to note that Chess teams from India and Israel will play in the India Israel Chess Match in Delhi. I wish the players all success and hope it will provide the right background for the world championship match later in May.

Both countries have a lot of promising young talent and we will surely witness a lot of entertaining games.

My regards and wishes to the players. A special word of mention to the AICF for bringing this event to India and we hope to witness many such events in the future.”