CHESS AT IPU MAIN CAMPUS

Being a consistent chess player for over 3 years now, I get asked a lot of times about chess in my college. What is the chess culture here? Is there a chess club at IPU? Is the club active? I will try to answer and describe the atmosphere behind chess at our main campus.

 HUNTING OF CHESS IN IPU

 After I joined the main campus on 2nd January 2022, my first question to my peers and seniors was is there a chess club in ipu, because being a 2000 rated Lichess player and having that craziness and hunger that I have for this sport is beyond levels, and unfortunately, no one had a clue about chess club here in ipu, I was a little disappointed but still, I thought if it is my first year, then till my last year I will build a chess club if there is no chess club here.

 NSUT CHAPTER

 in the first week of February, when our university started offline and people gradually started coming to uni, it was a changing point, I used to go to DSW(directorate of student’s welfare) which controls most of the societies and clubs here at IPU, So constantly knocking their doors about any tournament opportunity coming up, I one day got called by DSW that there is a tournament at NSUT, it will be an all government state colleges chess tournament, I was very hyped about this as this was the platform where I will be able to showcase my chess talent. Now during the team formation, I got to know about other chess players in which one was Samarth Luthra (Founder of USS chess club) and I got to know that ipu had an unofficial chess club which was made during the lockdown, As Samarth bhaiya was leading Team B of IPU, I got the chance to captain for IPU Team A, our team got joint 4th( sixth in tie breaks) at our first ever tournament run at this level, which I would say is something I am proud and the memories there are still something I daydream till this day.

 USS CHESS CLUB

 After the first tournament, we gained a lot of experience and at the same time we all knew a lot of work still needed to be done in the club, the number one priority of that was to make our USS CHESS CLUB official by driving it under the aegis of DSW. All the members of the chess club were on the WhatsApp group( consisting of 187 members as of today) where all the online tournaments and puzzles are solved and discussed, it has a very healthy atmosphere where each and everyone try to engage. We have played 27 online tournaments on Lichess (an online chess platform) in which there is participation averaging 15-20 players in each tournament.

 IIT DELHI CHAPTER

 IIT was hosting a Sportstech week where it held various sports including chess, we got to know about this last day and it was so frustrating as we want to participate but at the same time at such short notice it was tough, but we chess players never give up even in the losing position we try our best, getting slow responses from DSW, we tried to get the invitation on our emails and then paid the participation money from our pocket. But at the end of the day, we represented our college IPU at IIT and we tried to play our best there, and chess became the only sport of ipu that has represented IPU most time since January 2022 at a team event.

 PILOT IPU CHESS TOURNAMENT

 IIT was a great learning experience for us and now it was time to hold our very first OTB chess tournament(unofficial), with zero funds and support from IPU, we organised this event, Samarth bhaiya funded the entire funding of the tournament and the venue was a law classroom where we made the arrangments for tables and chairs and hosted it. In the registration, about 50 registrations were made, and 20 were shortlisted who played in the tournament. The top 3 were given prize money as well of rupees 1200, 1000, 800 respectively. It was very successful over the board tournament held in IPU and we hope the USS chess club hold more events like this.

 WHAT’S THE FUTURE OF CHESS IN IPU?

Chess in IPU is on an upward graph in which many hidden talents are stepping forward day by day and with such high participation in chess tournaments, the spark in students is pushing the club to greater heights. I being in the first year have a dream that in the coming 3 years left of my Btech, I want to represent IPU at the state, national levels and hopefully international levels and get a podium for my university once.

 Our metaphorical pawn has now become a passed pawn…                 
  -USS chess club