The first event of the Chess Festival is the 18th GH Raisoni Memorial International FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament being played till June 13 . The event wil be played in 11 rounds and has attracted 255 entries which includes 114 FIDE rated players vying for the top prize of Rs. 51, 000. The total prize fund for all there events of the festival is Rs. 4,51,000 sponsored by Raisoni Group. There are 48 female and 25 veteran participants in the event. The players of various age categories from 5 year old to 79 year old are participating in the event. The youngest participants of the event are Samhita Daswani of Nagpur & Bhavyansh Daklia of Chhattisgarh both born in the year 2020, while the oldest player of the event is Prakash Chand Saraf born in the year 1946.
IA Ajinkya Pingle is the Chief Arbiter of the event who is being assisted by Deputy Chief Arbiter FA Shiva Iyer, FA Amit Tembhurne, SNA Sham Agrawal, SNA Sagar Sakhare, SNA Prayas Ambade, SNA Shishir Indurkar and Prathamesh Machave.