Organisers want to give Anand a hassle-free experience
By Ashok Venugopal | ENS – CHENNAI
Published: 03rd November 2013 04:26 PM
Last Updated: 03rd November 2013 04:26 PM
The reception Viswanathan Anand got after he returned from his World Championship triumphs have been phenomenal to say the least. The 2007 reception was special as Anand also crossed the Elo 2800 points barrier. At the airport he was given a traditional reception with purnakumbam with sounds of nadaswaram and chendamelam (percussion) of Kerala greeting Chennai’s favourite son.
Anand had termed the welcome “awesome”. He was then taken on a horse driven chariot from Adyar to his house in Besant Nagar. The chariot was preceded by four ceremonial guards on horseback. This time, after a grand inauguration ceremony at the JN Indoor Stadium, the World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen will begin as a routine affair. Match officials want to make sure that absolute silence is maintained, as per the playing conditions.
“AICF and TNSCA officials are working round the clock for the smooth conduct of Anand’s match. We have an organising committee and formed several groups of volunteers to look into various aspects of the match. Apart from officials we have 60 volunteers to helps us,” said AICF secretary and head of the organising committee, V Hariharan. “The volunteers will be mostly from our districts. Children and general chess followers cannot be volunteers.
Chess is different from other sports. We need people whom we know as volunteers, as playing conditions (complete silence) are completely different from other sports,” said Hariharan. Organisers have allocated responsibility to several groups to look after everything, from the players’ arrival to their stay. “Plus, we have a group of officials from AICF and TNSCA to co-ordinate with FIDE and match officials. We also have allocated work to various people to co-ordinate with SDAT and various government agencies. We have also earmarked certain volunteers to look into food and other requirements of a large number of officials from various agencies who will attend the match,” said Hariharan.
Former chess player and columnist Arvind Aaron will be handling the media. “About 120 journalists have applied to cover Anand’s match. Only 70 seats are available. Thirty-five of them are foreign journalists. About 18 are coming from Norway,” said Aaron.
“The number of journalists from Norway for Carlsen’s sake is surprisingly more than the number of Indian journalists who covered Anand’s match with Garry Kasparov in New York.”
Source: http://newindianexpress.com
Nakamura had much better reception at the St Louis Chess Club.