Indian chess team from Yerawada jail win bronze at intercontinental championship

Representing India, a chess team from Yerawada prison in Pune, won a bronze medal at the recently concluded Intercontinental 'Chess for Freedom' Online Championship for Prisoners, organized by World Chess Federation (FIDE).

This was the first time that the tournament witnessed the participation of Indian prison teams who competed with more than 85 teams from 46 countries.

The participating Indian teams were groomed and trained under Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) 'Parivartan - Prison to Pride' initiative, the state-owned firm said in a statement.

"Under this outreach, IOC is facilitating training programmes in various sports such as chess, basketball, badminton, volleyball and carrom across prisons in India to help improve the physical and mental well-being of inmates," it said.

IOC, in association with the All India Chess Federation, selected the Indian teams for this intercontinental championship through the first-ever 'Parivartan - Prison to Pride Online Chess Tournament' wherein 20 Indian prisons took part.

Teams from Pune and Prayagraj prisons booked their berth for the championship while the women and juvenile teams from Tihar Jail in Delhi qualified in their respective categories.

The Yerawada prison team won a bronze medal at the championship, the statement said.

IOC Chairman S M Vaidya, who conceptualised the initiative, congratulated the medal-winning team, and said, "It is heartening that this special endeavour of IndianOil has borne fruits within such a short span of time and it validates the commitment with which our teams are stewarding such social outreaches across India."

"Their success strengthens our resolve to help enrich the quality of life of the communities around us. I must also laud the IndianOil Sports stars who came forward to coach these champions," he said.

Since the initiative's launch on August 15, 2021, IOC has covered 37 prisons spanning 20 states and 5 Union Territories, coaching over 1,750 inmates, in three phases.

Through this outreach, coaching facilities along with equipment and kits are provided to the participants. International-level sportspersons from IndianOil are supervising the programme.

Coaches from IOC include Grandmasters Esha Karavade, Soumya Swaminathan, Padmini Raut, SS Ganguly, and Abhijit Kunte in Chess; Manjusha Kanwar (former national champion), Abhinn Shyam Gupta (Arjuna awardee), and S Arun Vishnu (former national champion) in badminton.

Other coaches are Rushmi Chakravarthi (former national champion) in tennis and renowned international players Yogesh Pardesi, Mohd. Gufran, Kajal Kumari, and Ramesh Babu in carrom.

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