By IANS,
Chennai : J.C.D. Prabhakar of Chennai and Bharat Singh Chauhan of Delhi were elected unopposed as president and secretary respectively of the All-India Chess Federation at its annual general meeting here Thursday.
A media conference that followed the elections was attended by World champion Viswanathan Anand.
D.V. Sundar, vice president of FIDE, the world governing body for the sport, listed the development and growth of chess in India.
“During the last five years, the Federation has produced 24 Grandmasters, 74 International Masters and 14 Woman Grand Masters and 75 per cent of the credit for this growth goes to Vishy (Anand).
“Vishy (Anand) is an Ambassador for India and chess itself. Vishy’s and other up and coming youngsters’ achievements speak for itself,” he said.
Anand, in his reply, congratulated the office-bearers and urged them to sustain the momentum of the sport’s development in India.
The other office-bearers elected are R.M. Dongre of Mumbai (Treasurer); G. Bhaskar (Andaman Nicobar), Dibyendu Barua (Jharkhand), Sekhar Sahu (Orissa), A. Bakthavachalam (Pondicherry), A. Narasimha Reddy (AP) and Pradeep Jain (Uttaranchal), all vice presidents; P.K. Gupta (Rajasthan), M.S. Gururaj (Karnataka), K. Muralimohan (Tamil Nadu), Atul Kumar (J and K), Arindam Baruah (Assam) and Nand Kishore Joshi (MP), all joint secretaries.