The Hindu : Sport : AICF plans live relay on internet

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AICF plans live relay on internet

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The All-India Chess Federation (AICF) has decided to make arrangements to have all games in the National championship from under-7 onwards and international competitions relayed live on the internet for the benefit of chess lovers.

A decision to this effect was taken at the AICF’s Annual General Body Meeting, here on Friday.

There was no election this year as it became clear after the last day of nominations that there would be no contest for any post.

The core team of N. Srinivasan (President), D.V. Sundar (Secretary) and Bharat Singh (Treasurer) was retained. Only the period of term in office had been reduced from four to three years (2008-2011).

Surplus

Sundar, in his report on the events of the earlier tenure, said that the association had ended with a surplus of over Rs. 90 lakh despite foregoing revenue of nearly Rs. 50 lakh in the last two years through reduced annual fees for 4,000 players, abolishment of direct affiliation fee for academies (44 academies were paying Rs. 20,000 each per annum) and other player-related expenses.

He said the AICF, in an effort to overcome the shortage of chess clocks, had decided to procure 1,000 pieces with aid from the Central Government.

“Our plan is to retain 200 of them and give the option to the States to buy the rest,” he said.

The AICF Secretary added that the Federation viewed strongly the over-age menace that had crept into competitions (the AP unit came under adverse view in this connection) and a proof of this came in the stripping of the gold medal of Madhumita, a former under-7 girls’ champion who was found over-aged for the under-9 championship in New Delhi. The Delhi unit was complimented for its efforts in this regard.

On the Dresden Olympiad, he said the Federation would check with Viswanathan Anand on his participation after his match with Vladimir Kramnik.

While thanking the Union Government for its support in providing international exposure to junior players, Sundar made a plea that this should be extended to sub-junior level players this year.

He noted that all the proposals thus far from the Federation had been cleared by the Government.

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