On Sunday, July 11, the three-day international chess tournament FIDE Binance Business Schools Super Cup 2021 has come to its end. For the first time in history, 32 teams of graduates from the largest business schools representing Russia, USA, Canada, India, Mexico, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Philippines, Bangladesh, Zambia and Fiji fought for the champion’s title.

After two days of the group stage, the eight strongest teams advanced to the playoffs. The list of the quarterfinalists included  Shri Ram College of Commerce (India), the Finance University under the Government of Russia (Russia), MIPT Business School (Russia), MGIMO (Russia), University of Toronto (Canada), Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO 1 (Russia), Perm State National Research University (Russia), The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).

In the final, Shri Ram College of Commerce (India) defeated MIPT Business School (Russia) 2:0 and became the FIDE Binance Business Schools Super Cup 2021 Champion.

FM Jeet Jain from Shri Ram College of Commerce (India) shared his emotions after the victory: “It was an interesting tournament with very difficult games played. Our team knew each other long before the tournament as we are all from one college - some are juniors, some are seniors. We travel all around the world to play chess tournaments together, so we know each other pretty well.”

Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO 1 (Russia), that was also a co-organizer of the event, finished third.

The live broadcast of the final day of the tournament was attended by the FIDE Director General Emil Sutovsky. He shared his support for the project and expressed his hope to see it grow:

“The fact that in a short period it was possible to gather several dozens of participating teams, proves that the tournament arouse interest among the audience. This is already a success for a newborn event. This project can and should grow, I think it will work out the next time. It is important for FIDE to hold tournaments not only for chess players of the highest level, and not only for standard categories such as children, youths, veterans, but also tournaments like this. The project seems to me to be in demand, and I will be very happy if it gets a continuation.”

The 14th world champion Vladimir Kramnik gave some advice to future champions: “First, you must not forget that this is still a game, that it is not only self-expression, fame or money. Secondly, to keep a cool head in critical stressful situations when there is little time. It is extremely difficult, but it must be learned little by little. Whoever does it better is at the top. Chess players of the very top level are distinguished precisely by their ability to play well under tension, under maximum stress. And thirdly, do not forget to enjoy the game itself, and not just the result of it. It seems to me that if there is no pleasure in the process, then it is very difficult to reach success."

The champions will be awarded the first NFT Trophy by FIDE. All the prize winners will get their medals and the right to participate in an online simultaneous chess game against one of the top Grandmasters in the world.

In addition to the prizes from organizers, all the participants of the tournament will get official NFT tokens of the Cup from Binance. Viewers of the broadcast will also be able to get NFT drop, if they use a promo code CHESS until the end of July.

The daily online broadcasts of the FIDE Binance Business Schools Super Cup 2021 were made in English and Russian languages from the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO and were available on the official FIDE channels on Youtube, VK and Twitch.

Various experts attended the broadcasts to comment on the games and talk to the participants. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, the 14th world champion Vladimir Kramnik, and other famous grandmasters from different countries were among the guests.

The general sponsors of the event are Binance — the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem, Tiger.Trade — an innovative software package for securities and cryptocurrency traders, CryptoUniverse — one of the largest mining platforms in the world.