Guwahati, Jan. 8: The Pune-based Lakshya Sports Foundation is eyeing the promotion of chess in the region.
As part of the initiative, 20 budding chess players were trained at a weeklong camp conducted by the NGO that concluded here today.
"The aim of Lakshya Sports Foundation, Pune, is to pick, nurture and promote sportspersons across the country. Lakshya has also zeroed in on six other disciplines ' shooting, wrestling, badminton, tennis, boxing and cricket. In the Northeast, it has teamed up with Guwahati-based Mind Sports Foundation to pick and develop chess players for a start.
A weeklong programme, the 1st North-East chess coaching camp, was conducted here, where 20 players between seven and 19 years took part," international master and coach Neeraj Kumar Mishra said.
"Each discipline will have a representative. For all-India level training, the foundation has appointed Russian Grandmaster Vladimirov while Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte will oversee chess in the Northeast," Mishra said.
Of the 20 trainees, 11 are internationally-rated chess players. "We have discovered some special talent at the camp. Manthan Kashyap Dutta, Kabyanil Talukdar, Nistish Das and Debanga Kaushik Bhattacharyya look promising. Apart from picking the best for advanced training (during June-July) in Pune, the idea of the camp was to make the players aware of where they can improve," the Jamshedpur-based coach added.
H.P. Talukdar, the president of Mind Sports Foundation, formed a year ago, said, "The Northeast has loads of talent. So we have started with chess and wish to promote other sports as well."
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