Creating smart generation through Chess in School
Suhas Nayse, TNN | Aug 7, 2014, 10.43PM IST

NAGPUR: Although Viswanathan Anand lost his World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen of Norway last year at Chennai, the game of chess is progressing at a very fast pace throughout the country.

One of the reasons behind the popularity of chess in India is the programme called Chess in School (CIS), which is being run by the national governing chess body AICF under the guidance of world body Fide.

The Maharashtra Chess Association (MCA) has launched a massive campaign and spreading the game to all the districts of the state through CIS.

So far, the MCA has covered most of the districts, which also included tribal-dominated Bhandara, Gadchiroli and Gondia.

Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte is the torch-bearer of this ambitious programme and has been travelling across Maharashtra to bring more and more youngsters to take up the game of chess.

Kunte, who is also the commissioner of MCA, was on a development Vidarbha tour recently and visited several schools in Nagpur, Amravati, Akola and Buldhana districts.

He was accompanied by Hemant Sonare, director, MCA-CIS and Dilip Pagay, MCA general secretary during his tour.

Kunte interacted with players and parents during his Vidarbha tour. He also answered the questions and queries of upcoming chess players.

“We have to create a smart generation through chess in school programme. Chess can improve the overall personality of kids and help them understand various things quickly. A good chess player can become a very good student in academics,” said Kunte after his Vidarbha tour.

The Pune-based GM said they want around one lakh kids to play chess in near future.

“In our Vision 2020 programme, we want to produce 20 grandmasters from Maharashtra and for that target to achieve we need at least one lakh students to learn chess in the next few years,” said Kunte.

He said MCA is thankful to Jain Irrigation, which is supporting this CIS programme in the state.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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