We assumed India’s success in chess was a natural consequence of their large population, just as China, Russia and the United States were successful. But come to think of it, if that is the case, then India should be successful in many sports which they are clearly not. For example, India got its first Olympic gold medal only recently in Beijing (in shooting).India boasts 18 Grandmasters, 8 WGMs, 61 International Masters and 17 WIMs, simultaneously holds the World Junior and World Girls U-20 titles, has won more medals in the World Youth and Asian Youth Championships than any other nation. GM Ganguly is the newly crowned Asian Champion, and to top it all, the World Champion Viswanathan Anand, is from India.To find out the reason for their success, we interviewed All India Chess Federation (AICF) Hon. Secretary D.V. Sundar.

Interview of AICF Hon. Secretary D. V. Sundar

Q: To what do you attribute the success of India?

A: We hold many children’s tournaments. Every week there is a children’s tournament going on in one part or another of our 30 States. The five most active are in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal. These States are historically good in producing chess players.

We have many children’s tournaments, alternating age groups Under-8 to 16. The AICF insists that all tournaments give Certificates to all children. Not only children are encouraged but specially their parents.

Q: You concentrate on the development of the youth. But what more do you do?

A: We motivate organizers to hold rating tournaments. We have over 80 rated tournaments, Swiss Opens rated by FIDE. Many players are motivated to get a FIDE rating.

Q: I see that after playing in children’s tournaments, the next stage is joining FIDE rated tournaments.

A: We organize our national age group championships one year ahead of the Asian and World Youth Championships. Mentally, that player who wins has a year to prepare.

Aside from the traditional chess States, we have developed chess in Goa, Delhi, Orissa, Assam and Jharkhand. Kerala now organizes five to six rated tournaments per year with 150 to 300 participants each.

Rajasthan now organizes two or three tournaments every year.

We are creating a mass appeal for chess.

Q: After you create a mass base of players, how do they become so good to win so many medals?

A: We have a coaching program. Many coaches motivate children to take up chess. They teach them in their homes. We have many Coaching Academies. In Chennai alone we have 30 Academies for levels from beginner to mid-level and rated player. They alternate teaching children for two days, mid-level in the next two days and the advanced players for the next two days. These Academies operate independently of the AICF.

We have grassroots level coaches who go to schools and teach chess. Schools employ private coaches. Schools and Sports are under separate government agencies.

Players above 2300 look for a better coach. The AICF lets each State Association gather their ten best players and we send a coach at our expense.

Q: Please explain the organization of the All India Chess Federation.

A: The AICF is composed of 31 States Associations with voting rights. Each can send two delegates to the General Assembly. Therefore there are 62 members. They elect 14 members, from 14 different States, to a 15-member Board including the President. The officers are a President, six Vice Presidents, six Joint Secretaries, one Hon. Secretary and one Treasurer.

Finally we have 4,500 registered players paying 200 Rupees per year. They receive a monthly magazine. A school sponsors the printing costs and we post to all members.

Our office has a staff of six people – one accountant, one magazine editor, two senior staff for day to day activities, one staff for player registration and one rating officer. We estimate that we have about 200,000 tournament players throughout India.

Q: What are your other sources of funds?

A: Chess in India has the advantage of requiring minimal infrastructure which is one of the reasons the game is flourishing. You only need chess sets.

Organizers of rated tournaments pay 15,000 rupees ($300) to the AICF and 10% of their prize fund. International tournaments pay 150,000 rupees ($3,000). We have around three GM tournaments per year. National Championships and age group championships pay 50% of the entry fees, much more for Special entry for extra players. For international travel of our players we receive around $300,000 from national and state governments for air tickets and board and lodging. For invited players who are hosted, the government pays. The gold medalist gets this right. Silver and bronze receive assistance. Others participate on their own.

Players benefit from the government system of Sports Reservation in Higher Education and Employment, a sports quota for players with national and international certificates.

For rail travel, the government grants a 75% discount for sportsmen, including coaches and managers.

You can find all of this in our web site www.indianchessfed.org

When players win international titles, the government gives munificent bonuses, $6,000 for GMs, $2,000 for IMs, $2,000 for Asian titles. They are also entitled to choose their coach and are allowed three trips to tournaments abroad funded by the government. Coaches also get awards along with the medal winners.

The government supports hosting of international tournaments in India. For foreign stints the government supports us also with foreign coaches.

Then we have 12 Institutional Members who give jobs to chess players, GMs and IMs. For example, the Petroleum Sports Board has players whose job is to play chess. Once a year they have to represent the company in the National Team Championship.

Q: This is interesting. How do you convince them to become Institutional Members?

A: The print media in India has wide circulation and chess is well publicized. Companies want to ride on the publicity for chess. We also have had for the last three years a daily chess show on TV

Q: What now are your goals?

We want to have 12 more GMs in the next three years. But we try to help our neighbors also. I want Nepal and Sri Lanka to develop GMs as well. We regularly invite them and Bangladesh to join tournaments in India, free of charge.

Ed: Their neighboring countries and others too can follow the example of India where chess is second in popularity to cricket and it is not because of the size of their population, but because of good organization.