Deccan Chronicle 23.10.2013
Corporation parks all set to woo chess buffs
at a press meet in Chennai. Also seen are AICF secretary V. Hariharan
(left) and Fide vice-president D.V. Sundar (right). — DC
Chennai: Come
Monday, the chess lovers in the city can challenge seasoned players
to a game of 64 squares at various corporation parks.
The
All India Chess Federation (AICF) which is organising the Fide World
Championship Match (FWCM) 2013 between Viswanathan Anand and
Magnus Carlsen of Norway here from November 7-28, has planned to take
chess closer to common man.
As a prelude to the world event, the
AICF has planned to conduct blitz chess tournaments for bureaucrats,
journalists, the secretariat staff, veterans (above 60 years), and cine
artists and a slightly longer version of the game for visually
challenged during October 27-31.
While most of the tournaments
would be held at Nehru Stadium, the contest for the secretariat staff
would be held inside the secretariat. A prize fund of `50,000 has been
allotted to each tournament.
“We want to involve people from cross-sections of society and take chess to the masses,” said AICF president J.C.D. Prabhakar.
According
to him, a list of chess players is being prepared to make them
available at selected locations like Anna Nagar Tower, Mylapore’s
Nageshwara Rao Park and T. Nagar’s Panagal Park between 4 pm and 6 pm
till November 5. “We will award prizes to those who defeat the regular
chess players,” he said at a press meet.
Prabhakar further told DC
that the concept of having a public display board at select locations
was a nice idea and he would take it to the notice of the CM. “With the
state government sponsoring the world event in a big way, we will do
every thing to create interest among the people,” he added.
