A grand welcome was accorded to the torchlight procession of the 44th Chess Olympiad, which reached Thrissur on Thursday.
District Collector Haritha V. Kumar received the torchlight from grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna at a function held in Marottichal, Thrissur.
Marottichal, a village in Thrissur, well known for its craze for Chess, accorded a grand welcome to the procession. The procession has been arranged in Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram in the State.
For Marottichal, probably the country’s first chess literate village, the game is part of their life. Cutting across age and gender, almost 70 % of the people in the village play chess.
At the function Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna played chess simultaneously against 30 selected players from the State. The players included seven-year-old Shola of Thriprayar to 57-year-old Jayan of Marottichal. Cultural programmes were also arranged. The procession will reach Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
The torchlight procession will reach Mahabalipuram, Chennai, on July 27 after covering 75 cities in the country. The procession, flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, reached Marottichal after covering 67 cities in the country. The Olympiad will be held from July 28 to August 9 at Mahabalipuram.
