Grand Prix events at Phoenix ChessBase India Chess Club!
Phoenix ChessBase India Chess Club in Mumbai now hosts a year-long Grand Prix series, where the regular 4th Saturday monthly blitz tournaments, now award GP points to the top 10 finishers. After 11 cycles, the top 12 compete in a March 2026 Grand Prix Finale featuring higher cash rewards and a grand prize for the winner. The player with the highest total points is crowned Player of 2025-26, celebrating their consistency and strength in the club’s most competitive season yet. We are already six months into the Grand Prix events and have a leaderboard coming up! Read more about this and how you can be a part of it in this article. Photos: ChessBase India
Monthly Tournaments at the Club
Since its inception in March 2022, the Phoenix ChessBase India Chess Club has proudly hosted monthly blitz tournaments on the 4th Saturday of every month, exclusively for its annual club members, with a prize fund of ₹10,000. These exciting events have steadily grown in popularity and competitive spirit within our community as we have hosted close to 35 editions already!
Format
Blitz Time Control: 5+2
Entry Fee: FREE (all you need is a valid annual club membership that costs 100 INR, and you are eligible to participate in all our 4th Saturday events)
Spots: 90 to 100 (depending on the table arrangements made for that week)
Registration: A Circlechess registration link is sent to our club members via email, which helps them register for the tournaments
Prizes
Cash Prizes and trophies for the top 3 winners and some vouchers and gifts to the players ranked 4th to 8th from our online shop!
The Grand Prix Twist
Inspired by Freestyle Chess, Sagar bhai suggested adding a twist to our monthly tournaments for the year 2025-26!
The idea was to include the existing monthly tournaments in an annual Grand Prix cycle, where the top 10 players from each month receive certain GP points and the top 12 at the end of 11 events, play the finale leg for double points and an exciting grand prize (to be announced)
Building on this momentum, we announced the Grand Prix events in April, for the April 2025 to March 2026 cycle!
This new format brings a fresh competitive edge, rewarding consistent performance across multiple events.
Who Can Participate?
Anyone who is an annual member of our Phoenix ChessBase India Chess Club, with a club membership valid in the current FY (up to 31st March 2026)
Anyone in/around Mumbai can become our member, register for our monthly tournament through its link (sent via email), and play these tournaments hosted on 4th Saturdays! We still have 5 months to go and who knows if you end up being in the top 3 of these events, you could be a strong contender for the final leg in March
Register here to become our Annual Club Member!
The Leaderboard
2025-26 PHOENIX CHESSBASE INDIA CHESS CLUB GRAND PRIX LEADERBOARD | ||||||||||||||
RANK | PLAYER NAME | FIDE ID | APR PTS | MAYPTS | JUNPTS | JUL PTS | AUG PTS | SEPT PTS | OCT PTS | NOV PTS | DEC PTS | JANPTS | FEB PTS | TOTAL |
1 | Shah Mihir | 46628878 | 12 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 12 | 124 | |||||
2 | Iyer Arvind | 45092613 | 25 | 15 | 6 | 46 | ||||||||
3 | FM Nagarkatte Vedant | 25636227 | 18 | 25 | 43 | |||||||||
4 | Dere Pushkar | 25040898 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 40 | |||||||
5 | Kherdekar Arnav | 46646345 | 18 | 2 | 18 | 38 | ||||||||
6 | Guru Prakash | 25138316 | 4 | 15 | 18 | 37 | ||||||||
7 | Somaiya Shreyansh | 25774310 | 15 | 2 | 4 | 15 | 36 | |||||||
8 | PotawadAnirudhha | 45081506 | 18 | 18 | 36 | |||||||||
9 | Boricha Yohan | 46672923 | 12 | 10 | 22 | |||||||||
10 | Shah Veer Kunjan | 25671081 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 20 | ||||||||
11 | Naik Mihir | 33436649 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 | ||||||||
12 | Shah Jeet | 45012954 | 15 | 1 | 16 | |||||||||
13 | Shreyas Ghadi | 35062409 | 15 | 15 | ||||||||||
14 | Gogte Soumil | 45092567 | 10 | 2 | 12 | |||||||||
15 | Shubham Rahul Kamble | 25121421 | 12 | 12 | ||||||||||
16 | Ankur Mahesh Gokhale | 25033352 | 12 | 12 | ||||||||||
17 | Ram Vishal Parab | 25774166 | 6 | 4 | 10 | |||||||||
18 | Neeraj Singh | 10 | 10 | |||||||||||
19 | Gada Om | 25692755 | 1 | 8 | 9 | |||||||||
20 | Majumder Shrayan | 45040419 | 8 | 8 | ||||||||||
21 | Rachit H Gurnani | 25613065 | 8 | 8 | ||||||||||
22 | Malvankar Vikrant | 25011634 | 8 | 8 | ||||||||||
23 | Pandey Vihan | 48768626 | 6 | 6 | ||||||||||
24 | IM Sagar Shah | 5022509 | 1 | 4 | 5 | |||||||||
25 | Dharia Vishal | 45076162 | 4 | 4 | ||||||||||
26 | Chandar Raju | 25008307 | 4 | 4 | ||||||||||
27 | Siddharth Venkatesh | 5036763 | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||
28 | Gopal Rathod | 5018811 | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||
29 | Prabhu Arjun | 33436665 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
30 | Jagesia Daksh | 25670956 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
31 | Shubhankar Das | 45079579 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
The Finale Leg
The top 12 players on the leaderboard by the end of February 2026 will qualify for the Grand Prix Finale scheduled for March 2026. This finale promises to be the highlight of the chess club year with:
A larger cash prize pool.
A grand prize for the overall Grand Prix winner.
The winner doesn't just get decided by the first rank. We have a twist!
Based on final rankings, each player gets GP points which gets added to their previous score to decide the winners!
Finale points would be awarded as follows:
1st place: 50 points
2nd place: 36 points
3rd place: 30 points
4th place: 24 points
5th place: 20 points
6th place: 16 points
7th place: 12 points
8th place: 8 points
9th place: 4 points
10th place: 2 points
The player with the highest total GP points, including the finale will be crowned the Player of 2025-26 at Phoenix ChessBase India Chess Club.
Monthly Tournament Standings
We encourage all are club members to participate in our monthly event to maximize their chances on the leaderboard. The Grand Prix structure rewards not only individual victories but consistent excellence, pushing everyone to bring their best every month.
Stay tuned for updates on this article for leaderboard standings as we continue this exciting journey together!
