Five-time World chess champion and India’s first Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand will be the mentor for the Indian edition of chesskid.com, a US-based chess platform.
Announcing this at a press conference here on Thursday, chesskid CEO Carey Fan said there couldn’t have been a better guide for chesskid than the legend.
“Vishy [Anand] has inspired a generation of young chess players. Here in India, there are a lot of good talents like Praggnanandhaa, Nihal [Sarin] and D. [Gukesh]. [But] not all kids have the ability to get the training/resources they require. And one way to get that is through technology,” he said.
Describing chesskid as a safe and accessible platform, Chief Stats Officer Mike Klein said it is the world’s largest scholastic website for kids.
“There are one million kids playing. We are the foremost, respected, and fun place online platform. You can play live chess, do puzzles, interact with other players. All the focus is on kids,” he said.
Anand gave a thumbs-up to chesskid saying it develops not only chess skills, but also helps in academics. The 49-year-old emphasised that his son Akhil enjoys it.
“I am excited to be here. I want to take chess to the next level. It is very important to connect with kids and teach them the pleasures of chess. Chess develops all sorts of skills, skills that can help in academics and sorting out problems in life.
“It needs to be presented in a fun and entertaining way. After all you are competing with all sorts of other games.
“It has to be fun and accessible through technology. I think chesskid is perfect for this,” he said.
“I can tell you from personal experience. Akhil enjoys the videos [in chessKid] very much.”