Young chess champions of Tamil Nadu are in for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The finalists of the district-level school chess competitions held this year will find themselves competing with each other at an event where four-time World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand and World Number 1 Magnus Carlsen come together.
The event, which is scheduled for November 7, will see 360 shortlisted students from across the State. “We are extremely delighted at the opportunity to get the students together at such an event. This will be a huge boost for budding chess enthusiasts,” said a spokesperson from the school education department.
The Tamil Nadu government has released Rs 29 crore for the World Chess Championship to be held in November this year. This is the first time the State government has organised State-level chess championship programmes for school students. The programme, launched in association with the Sports Development Authority and the Tamil Nadu Chess Association, is aimed at enhancing the intellect and thought of school children through the medium of chess.
As part of the project, 55,667 training programmes were conducted across schools in Tamil Nadu in August this year.
This was followed by the school-level chess championship.
After four qualifying rounds, 360 students were shortlisted from a total of 11,25,628 students who participated.