64 Squares, a joint initiative of Pravaha Foundation and Pune-based eSports firm MGD1 announced a ₹2-crore sponsorship programme for six women chess players including two seniors, Woman International Master Savitha Shri (16) and Woman Grandmaster Vantika Agrawal (20).
It also covers four juniors, under-8 world chess champion Charvi (8), Commonwealth Youth Chess Champion Shubhi Gupta (13), Asian Youth Chess Champion Saparya Ghosh (13) and recently-turned International Master A.R. Ilamparthi (13) for their training, travel and other expenses.
“While our plan was to exclusively support women’s chess in India for this programme, we also included Illamparthi, whose recent performances have been very promising. We hope to help in the creation of a more formal ecosystem for chess sponsorship in India, especially for women players,” said Pravaha managing trustee, Vinoda Kailas in a press release.
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