AICF to crack down on overage menace,

Chennai, Jun 20 (UNI)All India Chess Federation (AICF) Secretary D V Sundar today said the AICF has asked Grand Master Viswanathan Anand to decide for himself about representing India in the Chess Olympiad this year, to be held at Dresden in Germany.

Speaking at the Central Council and Annual General Body meeting of AICF, Mr Sundar said he had asked Anand to decide about participating in the Olympiad after his match against Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn.

He said with regard to Grand Master Konery Hampy, she has been given the choice of either playing for the men's team or the women's team. Humpy had announced that she would prefer to play in some European events and skip the Olympiad.

Meanwhile, in a bid to crack down on the overage problem in junior age group tournaments, the AICF has decided to strip Madhumita of her gold medal in the Under -9 championship held in New Delhi in April last as she was found to be overage.

The Andhra Pradesh Assocition dame under fire in this aspect.

However, A Narasimha Reddy, the new Vice President of AICF from Andhra Pradesh, who is also chairman of APCA had assured that he would look into this menace and ensure that steps were taken to curb it, Mr Sundar said.

He said the AICF appreciated the Delhi Chess Association for identifying the over-aged players despite the hurdles created by their parents.

Mr Sundar also announced that the AICF plans to procure 1000 chess clocks with aid from the Centre. ''The organisers are forced to borrow the clocks to organise competitions or pay huge rentals.

Our plan is to retain 200 of these clocks with the Federation and distribute the remaining 800 to various state associations'', he said.

UNI VV SJ RKM RK1945