SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 27: Inmates of Ranchi and Jamshedpur central jails will participate in the first-ever online National Prisoners Chess Championship to be played on September 30 and October 1.
On the directive of the international chess body FIDE, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) has organized a chess championship among prisoners of the jails across the country for the first time. India Oil Corporation (IOC) has taken the responsibility to hold the championship under its CSR.
The team of four inmates each from Ranchi and Jamshedpur jails will participate in this championship. The winners will then represent the country in the online International Prisoners Championship which is to be played on October 13 and 14. Grand Master (GM) Abhijit Kunte, the senior officer of IOC, is the coordinator of a national championship.
The official said that All India Chess Federation had requested authorities of all jails of Jharkhand including Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, and Dumka for fielding their prisoners’ team in the championship but only Ranchi and Jamshedpur accepted.
Ranchi and Jamshedpur jails have shortlisted eight prisoners for their respective teams to prepare them for the national championship. Both jails would field four participants in the championship.
Since the championship will be online, IOC has provided computers for prisoners in both the jails and jail authorities have also permitted internet facility inside for practice as well as the championship.
Veteran players of state Jayant Bhuiyan and Manoj Kumar are imparting training to prisoners of Jamshedpur and Ranchi jails respectively.
Jayant Bhuiyan (International Arbiter), the coach of the Jamshedpur jail prisoners team, said in the first phase, 30 inmates were shortlisted and eight of them were finally selected for training to participate.
“We are preparing them since March. For one month we imparted prisoners offline training of game and now they are being trained how to play the chess in computer,” he said.
The official of AICF said that the unique step of FIDE is how to bring back prisoners across the globe into the mainstream. Chess would increase their patience and help in positive thinking.
