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123/A, Miranda City Likaoli Prikano, Dope
+0989 7876 9865 9
+(090) 8765 86543 85
info@example.com
example.mail@hum.com
Indian chess is blazing a trail – with a double
Olympiad sweep and now an 18-year-old world champion in the same year. “This is Chess 2.0 for India,” All India Chess
Federation (AICF) president Nitin Narang told HT. “It was Viswanathan Anand who
started this whole revolution. I remember even as a kid, we realised what a big
deal his World Championship win was. As a president, I’ll be very honest, I
have seen in other sports too – where there’s this sudden surge, followed by a
dip. Now, with Gukesh’s win, we have
momentum. It is going to lay the foundation for the next generation of chess
players to come into the sport.”
“It was the reason
that our action plan was very focused – that we give money to younger talent,
for one. We have an 18-year-old world champion so that will bridge any gap, and
secondly it will inspire a lot of younger talent to pursue chess
professionally. So, we are expecting
quite a surge in the numbers who would be opting for chess as a professional
career. As for sponsorships, when it comes to the federation, people want
to give money only if there’s extreme transparency. When the Olympiad teams
won, we were able to raise quite a good amount of sponsorship, similarly when
Gukesh won the Candidates, we were able to raise some money again. I’m sure
we’ll keep that trend going, and chess as a sport is going to get a lot of
eyeballs and traction.” Of course, chess
is an individual sport and India, as a nation, is more star-driven than
sport-driven.
The federation is
planning a gala felicitation for Gukesh in Delhi on his return, Narang said.
“I was in Singapore for the first two rounds
and the last two rounds. Having seen history unfold right before me, it makes
me confident that our job is somewhat easier now perhaps. Every state is
focusing on making sure that chess in schools as a programme is implemented and
we have been advocating going the e-learning way in terms of having vernacular
as one of the key languages. Things are
being done. It has to be done in a more aggressive manner now.”
