Saturday 07 / September / 2024
Muscat: With the main objective of promoting chess in the Sultanate and to ‘encourage and inspire’ the talented children to continue to play the game they are passionate about, the International Chess Academy of Oman (ICAO) is planning to invite Indian legend Viswanathan Anand to Oman.
The ICAO, which has been in the forefront of promoting the game of 64 squares, has already got in touch with Anand and according to Academy’s manager and chief coach Ismael Karim, if everything works per the plan the seven-time world champion will visit Oman in May this year.
Revealing the details of ICAO’s ambitious plans, Ismael Karim told Time Sport, the idea is to invite Viswanathan Anand for a brief tour during which he will play a simultaneous exhibition match as well as deliver lectures.
“It has been our endeavour to promote chess in Oman and we have found success with our promotional events in the past,” Ismael Karim said.
“The visit of Garry Kasparov in 2014 had a great impact,” he said of former Russian world champion’s private visit to the Sultanate.
During his stay, Kasparov stressed the need for formation of an official Oman chess governing body, which ultimately led to the Ministry of Sports Affairs forming the Oman Chess Committee just two months later.
“It (Kasparov’s visit) also led to creating awareness among chess players, both Omanis and expatriates. And we at the International Chess Academy of Oman did our best to train and educate the players though our training programmes.”
Ismael Karim, who also served as the coach of Oman national team and guided them during their debut outing at Chess Olympiad in Norway in 2014, said: “Now you see a lot of Omani players, both men and women, coming forward to play chess. In fact, they are going out on their own, spending from their own pockets to take part in the international tournaments.”
“Now our main objective in inviting Vishy Anand is to take the game to the next level, that is to create more awareness and attract more and more players, both Omanis and expats, to chess.”
“We first got in touch with Vishy back in November (2015) with our plans. He has readily agreed for our proposal. But he has given us a deadline to work and make all arrangements before finalising the tour,” he revealed.
“We have to work out everything... the sponsors and our exact plans for the event, by the end of March. If everything works to our plan, Vishy will be here from May 2,” he added.
Exhibition game
Giving details of the proposed plans for Anand’s visit, Ismael Karim said: “As I said the main objective is to promote chess. During his visit, Vishy will be playing an exhibition match simultaneously with the selected players.
“The opponents for that match will be selected both from Omani and expat chess players. We will also be visiting local schools to conduct selection trials and take the best from those schools. And of course, there will be Omani players and our own academy players,” he said.
Speaking about the other plans, he said: “The other plan is to have Vishy deliver a lecture at our academy and obviously that lecture will be aimed at encouraging the kids to continue with their passion of playing chess and realise their ambitions.”
“We want to create strong players in Oman. Hopefully his (Anand’s) presence and his words of advice will encourage kids and parents as well,” he added.
Referring to Anand’s home state of Tamil Nadu, where chess has been made compulsory in some schools, he said: “We will soon be visiting the local schools and interacting with the principals as well as other higher officials, to talk about our programmes and the visit of Vishy.”
“If it works out, Vishy will also be talking to the school officials and if possible visit the schools as well. We want him to stress the need to encourage children to play chess,” he said while speaking about how ‘Vishy has been helping a lot of children... with his advice and with his guidance on getting the sponsors for deserving players’.
Asked about whether the academy is confident of getting the right sponsors and then getting the final nod from Anand, he said: “We are very optimistic of getting the sponsors. He is a big player and very popular throughout the world both for his achievements and for his good nature. I am sure the sponsors will only be willing to support this event.”
“And about Vishy giving the final nod, it is as good as done. He had conducted training camps in the past, including a summer training camps in the United States. And I am sure he will be only looking forward for his first trip to Oman. But for that to happen we have to work hard and make proper arrangements,” he added.
