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International Chess Day Celebrations: An Initiative of ChessBase India and I.I.M.U.N.

by Vidhi Karelia - 23/06/2025

With every event we cover, and every chess tournament that an Indian wins (which is almost every week), chess gains new fans and inspires people to learn the game. Some end up playing casual online chess and some start their OTB journey! This International Chess Day, we are inspired to do something special! Our dear friend, fellow chess player and founder of IIMUN, Rishabh Shah, brought to us this beautiful idea of making the light of chess reach in the lives of people in 50+ cities of the country! Read more about it in this article and how you can contribute to it. Photo: IIMUN

About IIMUN

IIMUN stands for India’s International Movement to Unite Nations. It has been the world’s largest youth-run non-profit organization, founded by Rishabh Shah in 2011. It is a humble initiative to train youngsters and a public affairs platform that focuses on uniting the world by spreading the idea of Bharat, sensitizing tomorrow’s leaders today, without creating noise.

Rishabh Shah, Founder of IIMUN| Photo: Rishabh Shah

They have created a difference in the lives of 5 crore+ adolescents across 220 cities in India and 35 countries in the past 14years!

The IIMUN Board of Advisors! | Photo: IIMUN

One of IIMUN’s four pillars is its Social Impact Project. Through this beautiful project, they have been addressing key issues and supporting marginalized communities via campaigns such as Menstrual hygiene awareness, women empowerment, and climate change. They have impacted 700+ villages via 1,000+ social campaigns (like: My First Vote, Find a Bed, UN reforms).

Get ready to celebrate International Chess Day with us! | Photo: IIMUN

And this is where IIMUN, ChessBase India, and Teach Chess India will join their hands, hearts, and efforts to bring chess to 52 cities of India this year in the month of July!

With their last mile reach, IIMUN will identify places via local NGOs where children will gather in each of the 52 cities. ChessBase India and Teach Chess India will look for interested chess players/volunteers in each of these cities to join the IIMUN team and teach chess to children at various NGOs and orphanages as a part of this initiative.

We will be looking at identifying NGOs in these cities where our team of volunteers/chess trainers can offer to take a chess session between 1st to 19th July 2025.

List of cities where we will be celebrating the International Chess Day with IIMUN.

If you are a chess enthusiast/trainer from any of these cities and are someone who would love to be a part of this beautiful initiative of teaching chess to kids in your city, we invite you to be a part of this movement. You just have to fill out this form.

Backed by the Best!

GM Vidit Gujrathi is supporting this beautiful initiative and will be the face of this campaign. His contribution to the game of chess has been immense, not just in terms of the medals and trophies that he has won for India, but by bringing in brands and creators to trust in the game of chess and support it. He has won the hearts of chess fans across the world, and he is all set to support our movement of chess in the country in the month of July!

Vidit Gujrathi will be the face of this campaign!

The leaders behind this beautiful program

Rishabh and Sagar taking a look at Praful Zaveri's famous Chess Course book at the ChessBase India office | Photo: Amruta Mokal

“I am really excited for how this will shape up in the coming days. My vision with birthing the idea of this project has been to make chess reach to the people who ordinarily might not get the opportunity to experience the beauty of it. Chess has taught me so much and I have been very lucky to experience it in my younger days. My desire to stay connected to the game was reignited in the pandemic by Sagar, Amruta and ChessBase India. I see Chess as a life-skill, for it teaches us the virtue of patience, reflection and thinking through the processes before acting on it. If we could bring this to more people across the country, especially to the parts and lives where it could be otherwise inaccessible, it would be an amazing feat.” - Rishabh Shah, Founder of IIMUN.

“We want to make chess reach more places and make more people experience the beauty of 64 squares! I am grateful to IIMUN who is helping us on this mission to take chess to new places! I am sure that many people from the beautiful chess community that we have will chip in and we will celebrate the International Chess Day in a wonderful way!” - Sagar Shah, Co-founder and CEO of ChessBase India.

Fill out the form now

Important links

Interview with Rishabh Shah


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