In tense decider, Yerawada Prison’s chess team topples El Salvador at Intercontinental Championship

A bulletin from the Chess for Freedom programme about the final held on October 16, read, “In the Men’s final, India faced El Salvador in a tightly contested four-match series. El Salvador started with a 3:1 win only to be defeated by India with 3:1 in the second match. In round three, India scored a narrow victory 2.5:1.5 but in the final round they were completely dominated by El Salvador with 3:1. The results took them to tiebreaks: in the Armageddon match, Indian top-board was better, securing the crown for the team. Mongolia took third place after beating Serbia in the Blitz playoffs.”

In chess, an Armageddon game is a special type of tiebreaker used when a competition ends in a draw and a winner must be determined. In the Armageddon chess game, White gets more time on the clock than the Black, but Black wins the game if it ends in a draw.

The chess team of Yerawada Central Prison started taking shape in the mid-2021 under the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) social stewardship programme “Parivartan: Prison to Pride.’ launched in prisons across India and conceptualised by the company’s then chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya. Indian Chess Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte, who mentors the programme, roped in chess player and trainer Ketan Khaire as the team coach around the same time. Along with Kunte and Khaire, the training for the Yerawada chess team comprises International Master Eesha Karavade, Assistant Coach Sagar Mohite, Competition Referee Pavan Katkade, Computer Systems Assistant Ganesh Malkari and Team Coordinator Yogesh Pardeshi. The programme received guidance from Additional Director General Suhas Warke and Special Inspector General Yogesh Desai.

Yerawada Prison Superintendent Sunil Dhamal said, “All the members of the chess team are serving life sentences for very serious offences. The Prison Chess programme serves as a valuable correctional activity by promoting critical thinking, discipline, and constructive use of time among inmates. The prison department is proud of the passion shown by these inmates to become better at the game and also of their urge to leave behind the dark phases of their lives.”

Over the last five years, the chess team of the Yerawada Central Prison has won several accolades under the ‘Parivartan: Prison to Pride’ programme. These include four times national championship in prison chess tournaments, bronze medal in 2022, gold in 2023, fourth position in 2024 and silver medal in Asia round in 2025 before clinching the gold in world championship.