The 2025 Spring Season Of India College Chess Championship Begins!
The 2025 India College Chess Championship Spring (ICCL) began on January 23, 2025, with 225 teams featuring more than 1,140 players across 28 divisions. The SRM Institute of Science and Technology (A), Shri Ram College of Commerce, and Jeppiaar University have started with perfect scores after two rounds.
Standings after two rounds | Division 1
The India College Chess Championship is an event exclusively for college students in India. The event's regular season runs from January 23 to March 6, while the Playoffs run from March 20 to April 3. 
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.
Team SRM Institute of Technology and Science dominated the first season and clinched the event, winning every match they played. 
They now enter the second edition with the same formidable squad, poised for another title run—should their players maintain their stellar form on the field.
Several standout moments from the first two rounds have been shortlisted and are shared below.
From the first example above, it is clear that one must not grab a piece just because it is offered. One of the challenges is to recognize that one has a choice in such instances. The next example tells us how important it is to notice the drawback of the opponent's previous move. Black just played ...Qc7 here. What did White find?
The shortest game of the award goes to Vignesh N. on winning the game in 15 moves as Black!
Team SRM Institute of Science and Technology conceded one and a half points, and the loss occurred on this board, where the higher-seeded player, playing Black, fell prey to a tactic:
Team SRCC secured a narrow victory over Jadavpur University with a final score of 8.5-7.5 in the first round. They secured their second-round victory by forfeit. In one of the matches, Pratyaksh, representing SRCC, benefited from a stroke of luck as his opponent blundered despite being in a clearly winning position:
Jeppiaar University is performing strongly despite having only four players on the team. After securing a match victory against ISIK A with a score of 9.5-6.5, they dominated their second match with a commanding 15-1 victory over BITS Pilani A. Here is a moment from one of the games where there was only one winning move, but White missed it. This was also one of the longest games of the first two rounds. The player playing Black is representing Jeppiaar:
Standings after two rounds | Division 2
St. Joseph's College of Engineering, DG Vaishnav College, and Xaviers Team A have all secured full points in Division 2. In Division 3, Knightmare 2.0 is the only team with a perfect score!
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's page to follow all the games, results, playing schedule, and more.
The India College Chess Championship is the premier online chess competition for college students in India. It is a team event starting August 22, 2024, and featuring a $15,000 prize fund.
