Going Beyond the Board and Boundaries
Checkmate for Palliative Care – Global Edition! India Giving Day 2026
On March 8th, International Women’s Day, the Checkmate for Palliative Care initiative went global, thanks to the India Giving Day 2026.
An awareness campaign for palliative care led by Karina Grace from Sishya School in Chennai, and Beyond Grades, shaped into a global cause drawing players, enthusiasts and supporters from across the world to join the chess tournament. The first edition of Checkmate for Palliative Care was arranged online in January this year. The second edition organised under the banner of India Giving Day 2026 and was received well globally.
Close to 60 participants from USA, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and India, signed up for the online tournament, held on March 8th, Sunday from 8:30pm IST | 7:am PST.
The hour-long online tournament on Lichess.org saw 140 games played in total among 38 participants, with 7942 moves and an average rating of 1280.
- The winner from the previous edition, Revlin Ram, a 9th grader from Tamil Nadu topped the leaderboard again, finishing No.1 with a 100% win rate.
- Ayham Syed, a school student from UAE, finished second with a win rate of 64%.
- Pranav Shankar from the United States finished third on the leaderboard with a win rate of 60%.
The tournament had no age limit and saw participants between the ages of 14 to 60+ years, going beyond the geographic boundaries to play for a compassionate cause.
Checkmate for Palliative Care is an initiative by Karina under her banner Beyond Grades.
With Beyond Grades, this cause goes ‘beyond’ awareness building for palliative care but also supports the activities through fundraising for Pallium India USA (the beneficiary partner for the IGD Edition 2026)
Going beyond the chess board, Karina set up a fundraiser page to solicit support for Pallium India USA on India Giving Day that turned out to be more exciting! With her dedicated effort and the generosity of individuals, her fundraiser created a huge impact. The numbers speak for themselves:
- $2100 raised with 124 supporters, surpassing her goal.
- Finished 2nd on the P2P maximum donors leaderboard.
- Won cash prize worth $2000 for Pallium India USA in the competition.
- Large number of contributors for the charity partner.
- Surpassed several popular names like the legendary Sunil Gavaskar in the fundraising run up with the most number of donors.
Click Here to view the Leaderboard:
This makes the initiative not just successful but a feather to Karina’s cap and a motivation and inspiration in her pursuit to bring a change to the society.
Behind her grit, determination and thoughtful gesture stand her parents with their unwavering support: Mr. Mani James and Dr. Ramani James. They are proud parents and their continued encouragement will do more wonders for Karina in the future.
Dr M. R. Rajagopal (Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Pallium India) commended Karina’s efforts and ‘move’ to support Pallium India and heartily remarked that when he was of Karina’s age, he was only interested in watching films.
If you would like to get involved or organise a tournament, please write to us at [email protected]
Sayanditya Sen
Resource Mobilisation, Pallium India
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