Is Andhra Pradesh losing a golden opportunity to host one of the top international chess tournaments — the World Women’s chess championship — which was offered to the Andhra Pradesh Chess Association by the All India Chess Federation (AICF)?
Going by the silence in the corridors of the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh and the Chief Minister’s Office, the opportunity appears to be a ‘missed’ one.
Says Devaram Srihari, secretary, APCA: “AICF general secretary D.V. Sundar gave us the offer to host the tournament for 23 days, before March 2017 with a budget of Rs. 7.5 crore and we submitted a letter to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu seeking his help for organising it.”
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He said as two AP Grandmasters, Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika, were among the 64 Grandmasters from all over the world featuring in the tournament, hosting it (the tourney) will give a boost to the image of Andhra Pradesh.
He said Andhra Pradesh would be firmly put on the world map, for more than one million chess players from all over the world would watch the proceedings on the internet. “All the matches will be beamed live through the Internet”. “We also gave letters to Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh Managing Director Rekha Rani and Special Chief Secretary L.V. Subramanyam, but there is no response from them. Even Chief Minister’s Office is silent,” the chess administrator said. Mr. Srihari said that AICF Secretary (Sundar) was leaving for Baku (Azerbaijan) to participate in a World Chess Federation meeting next week. “We need to give our confirmation in a couple of days. I am keeping my fingers crossed” he said.