MAM
AICF, SportzPR to hold biggest Asian chess tourney in December
MUMBAI: The All India Chess Frederation (AICF) and sports communication consultancy, SportzPR has announced that it will organise A Category 20 Super Grandmaster World Invitation chess tournament.
The nearly three-week event with 13 rounds is scheduled to take place in December 2003 in Mumbai. Top players like Gary Kasparov, V Kramnik, Anand, Judit Polgar will participate. A Category 20 is a Super Grandmaster tournament where the average international rating of the players is above 2700 ELO. India’s second Super Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran will also be seen in action.
Currently, the two companies are talking with various sponsors. SportzPR president and CMCG India MD Samir Kale said that besides Doordarshan, other private broadcasters have expressed interest in covering the tournament.
According to Kale: ” This tournament is not going to be difficult to sell as there are celebrities involved. It is not just brilliant minds that we are talking about here. In addition there has been a viewership shift this year from just cricket to other sports where Indians have excelled in the international arena such as hockey, football and chess. We are trying to finalise an arrangement wherein the last 45 minutes of a chess game can be shown live. The event will also be broadcast on the web. In addition we will be putting up on giant screens in different locations of the country.”
The tournament is being organised by Venus Chess Academy. Maharastra Chess Association president Raghunandan Gokhale said, ” The reason we are holding the tournament towards the end of the year is because the players have a hectic schedule. Therefore they have to be contracted well in advance. Also in December children have time on their hands.”
“We will be organising attractions leading up to the event. These will kick off three to four days before the start of the tournament. You will see a Super Grandmaster play blindfold exhibition matches. There will also be five-minute Blitz chess duels. We will organise a series of lectures, which will be conducted by the GMs and coaches so that people interested in learning more about the game can benefit,” he said
“We will also be taking the lecture and training sessions to other parts of the country as well. The total prize money on offer for the tournament will be Rs 30,00,000. Our goal is to make this an annual event. In December we expect around 5000 people to be in attendance and therefore we are still in the process of finalising arrangements for the venue,” he added.
In addition Venus Chess Academy will also organise the Commonwealth Chess Championship in February 2004. This will be done on behalf of the Commonwealth Chess Association. The AICF is hoping to host this event annually as well if the other commonwealth nations do not express interest.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
