In the Asian Chess Federation annual summit at Abu Dhabi, the Asian Chess Excellence Awards 2023 has been announced and India shines with bagging the greatest number of awards.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Shri M K Stalin conferred with Man of the Year for his invaluable involvement for the successful hosting of 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad at Mahabalipuram in a short notice of four months while for the outstanding performance of winning Gold medal on Board number one in the Olympiad, Grandmaster D Gukesh bagged the Player of the Year award. All India Chess Federation once again showed it mettle to bag the Most Active Federation Award.
In other categories, for the bronze medal winning performance in Olympiad, Indian women team consists of Koneru Humpy, D Harika, R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni was adjudged as Best Women team of the year while Grandmaster R B Ramesh bagged the Coach of the year and Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte, Women’s Coach of the year awards. Grandmaster Leon Luke Mendonca received the Best Junior Player award for his performance in the World Junior Chess Championship where he tied for the 1st position while winning the Under-14 World Championship, Ilamparathi A R awarded the Youth Player of the Year award.
All India Chess Federation President Dr Sanjay Kapoor, Asian Chess Federation Deputy President Shri Bharat Singh Chauhan and Asian Zone 3.7 President Shri Ajay Patel congratulated all the award winners and thanked everyone for their support for making All India Chess Federation to bag the Most Active Federation award once again.