Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, the World No. 1 chess player, who is challenging Viswanathan Anand for this year’s World title in Chennai, is likely to visit India from August 18 to 22.
“Carlsen will be touring New Delhi and Chennai on those days,” the All India Chess Federation (AICF) secretary Bharat Singh told The Hindu over telephone on Saturday.
“He has never been to India, so he obviously wants to acclimatise himself with the country.”
Mr. Singh said the preparations were in full swing for the first ever World championship final match in India. “We want to make it a memorable event and would also be exploiting its marketing potential,” he said.
“Along with the World championship — to be held at Hyatt Regency, Chennai, from November 6 to 26 — we would conduct an international Grandmaster as well as a Woman Grandmaster tournaments.
“We are also planning to have big events leading up to the World championship.”
He added that there would be live coverage of the match on television, besides the Internet, the most popular medium to broadcast chess.
“We have begun our discussions with sports channels,” he said.
“We want to make sure that the World championship reaches to as many people as possible.”
