2026 India College Chess Championship Spring Season Begins!
The 2026 India College Chess Championship Spring (ICCC) began on January 22, 2026, with 216 teams featuring 1079 players across 27 divisions. Shri Ram College of Commerce and Jadavpur university are leading with perfect scores after two rounds.
Standings After Two Rounds | Division 1
* The standings reflect the current status. Some matches between colleges are yet to be played.
The India College Chess Championship is an event exclusively for college students in India. The spring regular season runs from January 22 to March 12, while the Playoffs run from March 19 to April 2.
Teams will compete in a seven-week round-robin of all-play-all matches. The top six teams will progress to the playoffs and compete for their share of the $15,000 prize fund. Teams SRM, SRCC, VIT Vellore, and Jadavpur are also part of this season. Jadavpur University has made a comeback after they took a break in the last season.
Team SRM Institute of Technology and Science dominated the first, second and the third season, winning all their matches! Last year, Raahul V S was just an IM, but he became a GM recently after winning the ASEAN Championship.
Their line-up for the third season is also strong, featuring GMs Srihari L R and Raahul V S, IMs Harsh Suresh, Srihari L, and Mohamed A. Dinesh Rajan M and Avinash R are the new entrants to the team. Now, let's take a look at some of the interesting games played so far in this season.
Let's begin by training our ability to checkmate our opponent. Can you find a straight path to checkmate White in six moves?
The next position has a forced sequence in which White exploits the weakness of the black king. Can you do it just like the grandmaster?
I couldn't resist sharing this move. When you find such moves, it can make your day. Can you spot White's best move?
The next position is again a classical example on making the most of a situation when there are no defenders of the king. Can you figure out the winning line?
It is such a coincidence that I came across another example where Black got a chance to play the same theme and was successful because the white king had no defenders. Take a look:
In the next game, you will see a psychological trick that White played and won. When players enter time scramble, the chances of playing auto-pilot moves or pre-moves increase and White took advantage of this in a smart way.
The shortest game in the first two rounds featured a theme that's worth remembering. Remember John Nunn's acronym—LPDO which stands for "loose pieces drop off." Can you see how Black forced immediate resignation?
Standings After Two Rounds | Division 2
Zugzwang Warriors (BITS Pilani Goa) and Jadavpur University Team are leading with 2/2. In Division 3, Dg Vaishnav College and Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur are leading with perfect scores
Standings After Two Rounds | Division 3
The battle for the top prizes will continue, and we will bring you updates on the next set of rounds soon. You can go to the event page to follow all the games, results, playing schedule, and more.
The India College Chess Championship Spring 2026 is the premier online chess competition for college students in India. It is a team event starting Junuary 22, 2026, and featuring a $15,000 prize fund.
