India Seeks Zone Status From FIDE

By Arvind Aaron

The All India Chess Federation has made three proposals to the International Chess Federation, FIDE and one of it includes a separate zone status for India like Russia, United States, Canada and China.

India is also mooting a new title to FIDE for Computer Specialists under the name "International Chess Computer Analyst Title". This title was necessary to bring in more expertise into the game and confirms the nexus of chess with computers.

The third proposal is to treat the National "B" as a norm event. All these proposals will be heard and decided upon at the Dresden Congress of FIDE in November this year. These decisions were made at the AICF's Central Council Meeting at Chennai on September 18.

Among the other decisions, D.V. Sundar announced that a girl from Trichy, Jennitha Anto will play in the Chess Olympiad at Dresden for a world combined Disabled Team on the basis of her finishing second the World Disabled Championship at Poland last year. For her coaching expenses the AICF is providing her a one time grant of Rs.10,000.

The AICF Central Council congratulated Abhijeet Gupta and Dronavalli Harika for winning the World Junior at Turkey and bringing laurels to the country. No nation had won both titles in a single year. They also commended the World Youth Olympiad team for winning the title for the second year running ahead of fancied top seed Russia.

D.V.Sundar, AICF Secretary appealed to the Andhra Pradesh Chess Association to first crack down on overaged players in their state before sending them to Nationals.

A Chennai company Grass Roots Chess Promotions Private Limited has been given permission by the AICF to stage tournaments on the Internet. They will hold tournaments and the India Internet Chess Championship.

In a sad incident, one parent, Senthil Kumar from Chennai slapped the chief arbiter during the National Under-11 Championship at Ahmedabad after a draw that his daugher claimed was not awarded by him. The parent, a registered player of AICF was handed a ban of five years and his daughter Kavya a ban for one year.

The AICF has decided on a three member committee to inquire into the affairs of the Orissa State Chess Association and send a report to the AICF before deciding on the next step. Cuttack District Chess Association had filed a case against the present Orissa State Chess Association for not accepting members from the 30 revenue districts.

Andhra Pradesh Chess Association wanted to host the Asian Schools Chess Championship at Hyderabad and Maharashtra Chess Association wanted to stage the World Schools Championship at Mumbai. AICF will be making proposals for these to FIDE.


Home                                                 Published on 19^th September, 2008