Encouraged by the success of the online challenge held in May, featuring some of the best players in the country, the All India Carrom Federation (AICF) has stepped up the idea with an international competition, to be held from June 25.
Players from the US, Sweden, Sri Lanka, Maldives, France, Malaysia, UK, UAE, Canada and Singapore are scheduled to compete in the tournament.
Apart from many world champions from India, the tournament will also feature the president of the International Carrom Federation (ICF) Josef Meyer of Switzerland. After seeing 11 white slams recorded by men and women in the two-day competition last month, the format has been tweaked a bit to make it more exciting for the online fans.
Now, each player will continue to play the white and black pieces alternately, from the same position, till the finish, for eight boards.
“Through this method, the players have the chance to score a white slam, a black slam and both slams. Each white slam will fetch five points, and a black slam, three points. The ultimate slam of scoring both the white and black slams in the same board, will fetch 10 points,” said Bharti Narayan, the secretary-general of the AICF.
Knockout stage
All the players will have a chance to keep scoring points for the first four days. Afterwards, the top four men and women will compete separately for the titles in the knockout stage.
The third and fourth-placed players from the league will compete. The winner of that match will challenge the No. 2 player. The winner of the second knockout match will challenge the No. 1-ranked player from the league for the title.
“We will also announce league winner every day, even though the scores will continue to be carried forward. We will have two-time world champion and Arjuna awardee Maria Irudayam adjudicating the best slam every day,” said Bharti.
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