Players body urges AICF to consider online National meets

The newly-formed Chess Players Forum (CPF) has urged the faction-ridden All India Chess Federation (AICF) to consider the possibility of holding online, this season’s National championships with players making the moves from designated centres, under arbiters' supervision.

In a letter addressed to AICF president Venketrama Raja and secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan, CPF president Varugeese Koshy referred to the recent suggestions made by Viswanathan Anand and FIDE Director General Emil Sutovksy to explore the possibility of holding Chess Olympiad online.

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Koshy proposed the formation of a task force of players, arbiters, organisers and AICF officials to discuss the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for such events. “We will be happy to be part of such a task force, if required,” he added.

Currently, with the world in the grip of COVID-19 pandemic, online competitive events are restricted to rapid and blitz time-formats. It remains to be seen how online competition in classical time-format makes a beginning.