Yogi Adityanath plays chess with Viswanathan Anand as Olympiad Torch reaches UP's Kanpur

As the Chess Olympiad Torch reached Kanpur on Sunday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was seen playing chess with five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand. As the two played the game, several photographers gathered to click pictures. Anand, who was scheduled to compete at this year's Olympiad, has opted out and now will coach the players instead.

Chess Olympiad torch reaches Kanpur

Speaker of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Satish Mahana received the torch from Woman Grandmaster and member of Team India at the 44th Chess Olympiad, Vantika, and handed it over to Grandmaster Tejas Bakre at Green Park Stadium, Kanpur. After this, the torch will travel to Lucknow. Other cities that have been covered so far include Leh, Jammu, Srinagar, Dharamshala, Shimla, Chandigarh, Patiala, Amritsar, Panipat, Gurugram, Kurukshetra, Dehradun, Haridwar, and Meerut.

The Olympic-style torch relay was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Sunday. The torch will travel across 75 cities in 40 days before reaching Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, where the 44th Chess Olympiad will be held. A total of 189 countries are participating in the Chess Olympiad and several grandmasters have received the torch at various identified venues.

This year, for the very first time, the International Chess Body, FIDE, has instituted the Chess Olympiad Torch, a tradition carried out at the Olympics but never done in the Chess Olympiad. India will be the first-ever country to have the Chess Olympiad Torch Relay as this is the place where the ancient game originated.

China opts out of 44th Chess Olympiad

AICF secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan confirmed that China will not participate in the 44th Chess Olympiad held in India. He told PTI, "Yeah...the Chinese (Open) men and women's teams will not be playing in the Chennai Olympiad. The reasons are not clear."

With the Chinese not competing at the Olympiad, the Indian contingent are set to receive a major boost. China's Open team won the gold medal at the Chess Olympiad held at Batumi in 2018 and at Tromso in 2014, and hence, would have been one of the favourites at the event in India as well. Meanwhile, the Chinese women's team won the gold at the previous two Olympiads in Baku and Batumi respectively.

(Inputs from ANI)