Players join hands to form ‘democratic and transparent’ Chess Players Forum

Chennai: Prominent players such as Dibyendu Barua, Swati Ghate and Abhijit Kunte have joined hands to form a Chess Players Forum with an aim to protect the interest of the players and take up their issues with the government and other authorities.

"Welcome to a new chapter in the history of Indian Chess! The Chess Players Forum has been founded to give a voice to the chess players of India for their own welfare and rights, as well as duties," the forum wrote on its website.

"We are a democratic and transparent organisation to empower chess players to play a part in their own destinies and in the growth of the game. The Forum aims to present the chess players' voice to the governing bodies of the game as well as to the Government of India, and to liaise with them on various issues involving chess players."

The founder members and current office-bearers are: IM Varugeese Koshy (President), GM Dibyendu Barua (Vice President), IM V Saravanan (Secretary), WGM Swati Ghate (Treasurer), GM Abhijit Kunte, IM Neeraj Mishra and IM (Correspondence) N R Anil Kumar (all Managing Committee members).

The forum is registered in Pune as an association, as well as under the Income Tax department, thus under the ambit of legal and financial laws.

The forum secretary Saravanan told PTI that they will reach out to legendary Viswanathan Anand, P Harikrishna and the women's ace Konery Humpy to have them on board

"We will be contacting everyone. We want all to join. We kept the formation of the Forum away from the public eye so far, due to the registration process. Now that we are ready, we shall propagate ourselves in a big way," he said.

The forum on its website said that there will be democratically held elections between three to six months of its initial registration and office-bearers will be elected by a defined voting process.

"We have ambitions to get affiliated with national and international sports/chess bodies and thus work for the growth of the game," it said and appealed to all chess players in the country to become a part of it.

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