Chief Minister M.K. Stalin held a meeting in Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi to discuss the arrangements being made for hosting 44th Chess Olympiad. FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich attended the meeting in ‘Podhigai’ Tamil Nadu House in the national capital on Friday.

During this discussion, Minister for Environment, Climate Change, Youth Welfare and Sports Development Siva V. Meyyanathan, Chief Secretary V. Irai Anbu, Secretary of Sports Development Department Apoorva, President of the All India Chess Federation (AICF) Sanjiv Kapoor, chess legend Viswanathan Anand were present.

Chess Olympiad Project Tournament Director Bharath Singh Chauhan and Member Secretary of the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) Dr. R. Ananda Kumar, Chairman of Gujarat State Cooperative Bank Ajay Patel were also present.

“A FIDE inspection team had earlier inspected the selected the venue 60 km south from the city, that is Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram Resort and Convention Centre. Traditionally along with the Olympiad, the FIDE Congress, to select a new President and office bearers, also used to be conducted. This time too, it will happen in Chennai as per the FIDE protocol, in August 2022,” an official release said.

About 2,000 chess players, including several popular grand masters are participating in the event from 186 countries around the world. All the preliminary works to pass a government order to create Chennai Chess Olympiad Committee, a dedicated society, to carry out the various works related to the conduct of the Olympiad with a Kaleidoscopic opening ceremony and spectacular closing event, are completed.

The 44th Chess Olympiad is expected to happen from July 27 to August 10, 2022. Mr. Dvorkvich expressed his happiness in the way the event is shaping up during his meeting with the Chief Minister.