State conducts special walkathon for Chess Olympiad

CHENNAI: To further popularise the 44th International Chess Olympiad, the State government on Sunday conducted a special walkathon from Napier bridge to the lighthouse.

The event was jointly flagged off by the Minister for Health Ma Subramanian, Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments PK Sekar Babu and Minister for Sports Siva V Meyyanathan. In the event, students studying in hostels attached to the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT), Chess players, social activists and the public participated.

All the participants were given t-shirts of Chess Olympiad. Earlier in the day, an awareness cycle rally was conducted by Mylapore MLA T Velu from Lighthouse to Napier bridge.

The 44th International Chess Olympiad is set to commence on July 29 and the inauguration function for the event will be held on July 28, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to preside over.

Meanwhile, the first batch of Chess players from Madagascar arrived on Saturday followed by players from South Africa and Nigeria on Sunday. The players upon arrival at Chennai Airport posed with the official mascot of the international event, Chess 'Thambi'.

More than 2,000 players from 187 countries are set to participate in the Olympiad which is conducted for the first time in India.