by Suman Gupta
Jalandhar, March 15: All-India Chess Federation president Dr Sanjay Kapoor announced, here on Sunday, that the first Punjab International Grandmasters tournament will be held in Jalandhar later this year.
“We believe that fans need to see top players in action for chess to become a true phenomenon in the country and we aim to have the cream of the players for this tournament,” the president said, while unveiling a slew of new initiatives to promote chess, especially in states where it was not so popular.
In the immediate future, the Senior National Chess Championship will be held in Kanpur from April 13 to 20, 2021, in the ‘grandest style possible.’
To make the sport truly universal, Dr Kapoor, who was felicitated by the Punjab State Chess Association for becoming the youngest AICF president, explained that to for the development of chess at the grassroots level, the federation would be selecting and training at least three organisers in each district of India, starting next month.
“Our goal is to create close to 1,500 trained organisers in the country soon so that we can have multiple tournaments all through the year,” he said.
The AICF president disclosed that under the Training for Trainer program, 1,500 trainers were currently being trained by 14 Grandmasters and 14 International masters.
“Our aim is to create employment for thousands of chess coaches, who will in turn teach and develop lacs of players. We are looking at creating an intellectual force in Modern India, the kind of which has never been seen before anywhere,” he declared.
As for Punjab, Dr Kapoor revealed that they were already in an advanced stage of talks with the Punjab Government for implementing his ambitious Chess in School programme in the state.
“We want every child in India to play chess for at least 3 to 4 years in their lives. Hundreds of chess teachers will be going to schools all over the country. We will also create the biggest digital platform so that lakhs can learn and play chess online,” he said.
Dr Kapoor thanked the PSCA for their warmth and expressed his delight at visiting the state known for its patriotic fighters and vowed to make Punjabis ‘real lions’ on the board of chess too.
“Our goal is to create close to 1,500 trained organisers in the country soon so that we can have multiple tournaments all through the year,” he said.
