Chennai's CM Trophy Draws 1,935 Players, Asia's Biggest in September

One-day rapid events in Tamil Nadu produced the largest fields in Asia in September. CHENNAI District - CM TROPHY 2026 - School Boys topped the list with 1,935 players registered on Sept. 15. It was played at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Periyamet, Chennai, and organized by the Chennai District Chess Association.

Second was the Tirupattur District Chief Minister’s Trophy Chess with 1,361 players on Sept. 11. It was held at CSI Public School on Salem Main Road, with the District Sports Officer, Tirupattur as organizer.

The first classical event comes third. PICA’s All India Open Below 1800 FIDE Classical ran Sept. 11 to 13 at Sri Chaitanya Future Pathways Global Schools in Miyapur, Hyderabad, with 920 players. Pratyusha International Chess Academy organized it.

Just behind, in Delhi, were two separate chess-results listings of the Shri Dhanpat Rai Sachdeva Memorial. One had 909 players and the other had 817. Both ran Sept. 26 and 27 at the Marina Dream Banquet in Wazirpur, under the Rai Sahab Council for Sports and Education.

Chennai had a second entry in fifth. The T2C 2nd State Level Open & Children Chess drew 901 players on Sept. 6 at Jayagovind Harigopal Agarwal Agarsen College in Madhavaram. Time 2 Chess organized it.

Pune’s municipal selection events also placed. The PMC ZP Under 14 BOYS Selection Chess Tournament had 877 players over Sept. 27 and 28 in Kharadi. In Pimpri Chinchwad, the U-14 Boys DSO-PCMC District Selection drew 633, and the U-17 Boys edition drew 583.

Namakkal staged three CM Trophy events at the District Sports Stadium, organized by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu. They drew 820 players on Sept. 13, 723 on Sept. 18, and 599 on Sept. 13 in a separate listing.

Other Tamil Nadu fields: the 26th Jaigopal Garodia Memorial Chess Academy had 753 players in Kolathur on Sept. 20. The CM Trophy - School Boys Virudhunagar District had 641 in Sivakasi on Sept. 29. The CM Trophy Boys Category Chess Tournament had 629 at PSNA Engineering College, Dindigul.

Elsewhere, the 1st Rotaract RUAS - Children Chess Academy drew 654 to M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences in Bengaluru on Sept. 20. In Mumbai, the MSSA 45th Annual Inter School Chess Tournament had 564 at St Sebestain High School, Chembur, and The Chembur Gymkhana 4th All India FIDE Rapid had 556 on Sept. 6.

The other classical event was the 6th Nagpur Below 1700 Open FIDE Rating Chess, with 542 players from Sept. 4 to 6 at G H Raisoni Institute of Engineering & Technology. Last on the list was the 1st VijayAnand Chess Academy Rapid International, with 540 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Sept. 27.

Eighteen of the 20 were rapid. The cutoff to make the list was 540 players, out of 1,376 tournaments tracked across Asia in the month.