12th KIIT International Chess Festival Inaugurated
The 12th KIIT International Chess Festival 2019 (KICF 2019) was inaugurated in KIIT Premises on 1st June 2019. Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KIIT & KISS and MP, Lok Sabha; Debasish Samantray, President All Odisha Chess Association (AOCA); Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary (Hon), All India Chess Federation (AICF); Manmeet S Goinid, Director, SAI, NSEC, Kolkata; Sekhar Chandra Sahoo, Tournament Director and Olympian and sprinter Dutee Chand joined as guests and addressed the inaugural session.
The international Chess tournament from May 31 – June 7, 2019 is jointly organized by AOCA and KIIT-Deemed to be University under the aegis of AICF and World Chess Federation (FIDE). Dr. Samanta said, KIIT & KISS have been promoting sports, games and players of Odisha since its inception. It is a matter of pride that, KIIT & KISS have produced more than 5000 sports persons representing national, international and state in various sports.
Mr. Samantaray said, KIIT has a great role to promote chess internationally. In his speech Mr. Chauhan said, KIIT & its Founder Dr. Samanta have been promoting chess since last 20 years. While, India’s rank in chess was 150 in world before 15 years, today we are in 4th position in chess in world ranking. Mr. Goinid said, various initiatives taken by KIIT and KISS to promote sports and sports persons is really praise worthy.
Grandmasters, International Masters, Woman Grand Masters & Woman International Masters from 30 different countries are participating in the tournament. The prize money of Rs. 25,00,000 is the attraction of the tournament. The tournament will be played in three categories basing upon ELO Rating of the players. Those having ELO Rating of 2000 and above will compete in Category A.
Around 3000 players, guardians and officials have attended the event. The participating countries include India, Tajikistan, Czech Republic, Armenia, Belgium, U.S.A, Spain, Venezuela, Russia, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Malaysia, Vietnam, Chile, Afghanistan, South Africa, Singapore, Greece, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, Mongolia and India.
The results will be published on www.chessresults.comwebsite and the Top 20 boards of Category A will be telecasted live in www.followchess.com.The event will be conducted under the leadership of International Arbiter R. Anatharam.
All games are going on in International Chess Hall, Campus 15(B) and in KIIT International School campuses. In fact, KIIT has world class facilities for hosting international level Chess tournaments. Besides it has been successfully hosting past 11 editions of KICF, FIDE World Junior Chess Championship 2016 and several other international tournaments.