Grandmasters with 2500 Elo rating in Open and Woman Grandmasters with 2200 Elo rating in women’s category need not participate in the National Premier / National challenger events in the immediate previous year anymore to take part in the Asian individual championship. Only, such ratings should reflect in the FIDE ratings list published two months before the start of the tournament.
A decision to this effect was taken at the All India Chess Federation annual general body meeting held here on Sunday. It was also decided that GMs and women GMs can participate as ‘special entry’ in world junior championship even if they had not participated in the National junior / National junior girls championships in the previous year.
Yet another new development is in the procedure for selecting the Indian men and women’s teams for World championships / Olympiad / Asian team championship. From now on, the national champion and the top four rated players (as per ratings published two months before the event) will get a direct entry. Also, while computing the rating, 75 Elo points will be added to all those who participated in the premier / challenger National championships in the previous year, according to a press release.
It was announced that former National ‘A’ player V. Hariharan, currently Joint Secretary has been made Secretary in place of Bharat Singh in keeping with government guidelines. Hariharan is also the General Secretary, TNSCA.
Kishore Bandeker has taken over as Joint Secretary while Mr. Singh has been appointed Chief Executive Officer.
The general body took a serious view of the complaints against Delhi player D.K. Chopra about misbehaviour with women players and children during tournaments in the last four years and decided to slap a life ban on him.
With the World championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen scheduled here in November, the AICF, with President J.C.D. Prabhakar in the chair, took the occasion to thank the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for coming forward to fund the championship.
Also, it was decided to organise many tournaments during the world championship to lend a carnival atmosphere to the settings in the city.
