LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, July 7: The first-ever Chess Olympiad Torch Relay reached Ranchi on Thursday. Hafizul Hassan, the sports minister for Jharkhand, lit the candle at the Khelgaon Sports Complex. In Ranchi, Grandmaster Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury carried the torch ahead in front of esteemed dignitaries. The Torch had visited Gaya, Rajgir, and Patna in Bihar earlier on Wednesday.
Leh, Jammu, Srinagar, Dharamshala, Shimla, Chandigarh, Patiala, Amritsar, Panipat, Gurugram, Kurukshetra, Meerut, Kanpur, Kevadia, Ahmedabad, Dandi, Surat, Jaipur, Daman, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Panaji, Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, and Jhansi are some of the other cities that have been covered.
A felicitation was arranged for the top six players who got selected from a tournament conducted for under-15 School Children last month. These players, Aditi Raj from Ranchi, Saara Jain, Adhiraj Mitra, Kumar Sankalp all from East Singhbhum and Amit Kumar Singh and Kanishka Mukhi from West Singhbhum, will be in Mahabalipuram to witness the great players in action from July 28 to 31.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the torch relay.
Before reaching Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, the torch will travel to 75 cities over 40 days. The chess Olympiad has participants from almost 200 nations. Grandmasters in the game of chess will receive the torch at various locations.
The Chess Olympiad Torch, a part of Olympic tradition but has never been done in the Chess Olympiad, was introduced this year by the International Chess Organization, FIDE. The first nation to host the Chess Olympiad Torch Relay was India.
The 44th edition of the world’s biggest chess event will be held in Mahabalipuram, near Chennai, from July 28 to August 10.
