The All India Chess Federation (AICF) has decided to include chess in school curriculum. Accordingly, the AICF and the All Odisha Chess Association (AOCA) have chosen the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) here as the first school for incorporating chess in its curriculum.
AICF secretary Bhagat Singh Chouhan and AOCA president Ranjan Mohanty declared this at a Press conference here on Saturday. The programmes would be managed by the International Chess Federation, they said.
Notably, KIIT & KISS founder Dr Achyuta Samanta has been promoting chess through KIIT & KISS for the last 10 years resulting in the emergence of many national and international players from here.
To incorporate chess in the academic curriculum, communication was being made with AICF by KISS for the last year based on the strength of its infrastructure, coaches and facilities. The AICF communicated with Dr Samanta, who gave a green signal to include chess in the curriculum of KISS from the 2021-22 academic session.
Dr Samanta said such an endeavour would enable many chess players of KISS as well as of Odisha to get international exposure. Besides, the future would not only witness many tribal students turned chess players but chess would be a boon in their mental growth.