Tamil Nadu State Chess Association plans felicitation tournament for Gukesh, proposes to name trophy after World champion
Tamil Nadu State Chess Association plans felicitation tournament for Gukesh, proposes to name trophy after World champion
The Tamil Nadu State Chess Association (TNSCA) president M. Manickam on Thursday said that the Association has planned to felicitate the youngest World chess champion D. Gukesh in February.
He said the associtation will organize a tournament and the champion will receive their prize from Gukesh at the felicitation event. He added that the aim was to encourage and motivate young chess players across Tamil Nadu.
“We want to do something different. We want to use this to encourage a lot more youngsters. And give them an opportunity to meet Gukesh. So, we want to select the budding chess players of Tamil Nadu. We’ll have a tournament, and then have Gukesh give the prizes.
“We’ll ask for ten players each from the 38 districts. We can bring them in and have a tournament. We’ll use Gukesh as a mascot for the tournament,” he said on the sidelines of the Chennai Open International Grandmasters chess tournament here.
He also said that the association is considering naming the tournament’s trophy after Gukesh (Gukesh Trophy), pending his permission.
“We have an idea. But we need to ask for his permission. We need to check with him. But what we want to do is to use Gukesh’s presence and motivate the youngsters.”
Manickam added that the tournament could even become an annual fixture.
