City could have Mayor's invitational chess meet

Kolkata, Dec 31 (UNI) The city is all set to host its first four continent Mayor's Invitational Chess Meet in 2008.

A five-member team consisting GM Dibyendu Barua, GM S S Ganguly, GM Sandipan chanda, IM Atananu Lahiri and Saptarshi Roychowdhury has just won the Warsaw Invitational Mayor's Trophy, a meet held from December 11 to 13.

This gave team leader GM Dibyendu Barua an idea to hold the tournament here also that will feature the three teams that participated in this edition. The teams are from Warsaw(Poland), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Kolkata (India). In addition they would like to get two teams from Australia and Africa making it a five nation affair.

Barua said, ''We won all our matches there and have come back with Mayor's Trophy which is a crystal cup exquisitely designed with a brass brocade of a mermaid. We approached the Kolkata Municipal Corporation if a similar project could be organized here. He has been very responsive.'' Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya said, ''a proposal has been given to us. We find it very encouraging. We will talk with the sports department on the matter and hopefully we will do something.'' Barua said, the cost for holding the invitational tournament would be around Rs 20 lakhs and so he needed government help.

Surya Sekhar Ganguly said, ''They would like to invite Melbourne or Sydney and Cairo if the tournament happens.'' Barua, who runs the Dibyendu Barua Chess academy, will also felicitate the newest women's GM Mary Ann Gomes Wednesday.

UNI