CRYchess 2014 – A Decade of Success

CRYchess completed a decade of existence and growth. Starting in 2004, the CRYchess 2014 completed a decade and entered the 11th year this Friday, Nov the 28^th. Organized by FOCC (Friends of CRY Club, Kuwait), the CRYchess tournament is open to all children any age, while they are at school and with no minimum age limit. As has been the case in the past, for varying reasons, the event has been organized in various venues - Salmiya, Mangaf and Ahmadi. This year's venue, SIMS (Salmiya Indian Public School) proved to be a very convenient and spacious facility. The weather was kind too, with perfect temperature and breeze. The number of participants topped 165 this time. 

All the participating children are placed in one of the 6 groups, based purely in the descending order of their age - maximum 32 children in each group.  The exact group numbers and placement of each participant is only known after all the registrations have been completed. Each group is supervised by an Arbiter. The Arbiters are volunteers, who have a good chess playing background, and have offered their services for the cause. FOCC thanks all Arbiters for their continued support and time. Each group's participant's names are entered in a Swiss-Pairing software, where the first round pairing is done by the software in a random order. In every subsequent round, they are paired based on their ranking. Each participant plays all the five rounds. After the 5^th round technically, only one person would be placed 1^st rank, provided he has won all the 5 rounds. In case of no one winning all the 5 rounds, children with 4 wins are listed in the order of their round wise wins. Depending on the ratings of the opponents defeated, the software gives a clear ranking to all players. This is NOT a knockout system. Thus even after losing any one game, a child could still hope to be a winner in his group, based on the ranking. There were 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place trophies to be won in each group. The youngest participant of the tournament, as always received a special award.

SIMS has been enormously supportive of FOCC's cause - in many ways. Both, the Principal Dr. Prashant Vasudev and Director Dr. Anees Ahmed also gave time out of their off-day to grace the opening and closing ceremonies of the tournament with their presence and present the trophies to the winning participants. FOCC is highly grateful to SIMS for their support. The children were once again reminded that "With CRY, everybody wins". Their presence here is to have a fun filled day but at the same time to focus on the purpose - which is to help the under-privileged children back in India. A brief about FOCC & CRY supported project was presented by FOCC. Manav Ashrita Sansthan (MAS) is the supported grassroots organization working towards the up-liftment of children and women in the tribal areas of Bavalwada area of Rajasthan. This project covers 22 villages with a population of more than 16,000. A continuous display of CRY’s achievements was running, for the benefit of parents and children throughout the day.  The “Kid’s Corner”, with numerous games and gifts, as always attracts continuous streams of children, between the round. The Corner is entirely run by the “CRYbuddies”, who are children who have chosen to dedicate their time and effort contributing towards the success of the event. Special thanks to them all – Nupur Gupta, Pooja Gupta, Shabenandan Gopikrishna, Enaam Merchant, Qaisarali Merchant, Kynara Fernandes, Niranjan Rajendran and Lohit Vigneshwar.  The food stall was set up by Amma Kuwait, providing delicious snacks, meals and beverages throughout the day. We thank them for their continued dedication to FOCC.  The winners in each group were (in the order – first, second and third place): White Opal, the youngest group: Kaustuv Mohapatra, Tusharkant Anandan, Jerry Joby; Yellow Citrine Group : Alrricq Scott D'Souza, Jobel George Joseph,Akshat Jain; Blue Sapphire: Ashnel Felix Gonzalves, Sarthak Jogiani, Denver Machado & Joseph Nelson (joint 3rd); Red Ruby Group: Ebin Shibu Nanthalathu, Mohammed Uwais, Sreenithi Suresh Subashini; Green Emerald Group: Tejas R. Pradeep, Aromal K Harilal, Jonathan Vinay & Abhinav Sood (joint 3rd); Violet Amethyst, the senior-most group: Akshaya K.S., Vidit Shah, Ahmed Fouzan. The special Youngest Player trophy was bagged by Sivesh Senthilkumar, who is all of 5 years and 9 months of age. In addition to the winners, all the participants were awarded a medal and a certificate. Congratulations to all the children. Thanks to the parents for supporting their children and CRY.  FOCC is also involved in other sports and educational activities and more details can be found at www.focckwt.org.