New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag-off the historic torch relay for the 44^th Chess Olympiad on June 19^th at 5 PM from Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will receive the relay torch from FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich who in turn will hand it over to Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.

The 44^th edition of the world’s biggest chess event will be held in Mahabalipuram near Chennai from July 28^th to August 10^th. In nearly 100 years of the history of the Chess Olympiad, it’s the first time that India will be hosting this prestigious event.

Historic Olympiad Torch Relay will start from New Delhi on June 19^th and it travel across the country (75 cities in 40 days) via Leh, Srinagar, Jaipur, Surat, Mumbai, Bhopal, Patna, Kolkata, Gangtok, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Thrissur, Port Blair and Kanyakumari before reaching its destination Mahabalipuram on July 27^th.

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) introduced an Olympic style Torch Relay tradition for its Olympiad from this year’s event and named India as the starting flame point for each edition, commemorating the popularity of chess in the country where the Chess originated.

Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand speaking in a press conference on Friday said that I’m really excited to be part of this historic moment. I was always fascinated by the Olympic Torch Relay concept and now we also have one in chess. But the most amazing thing about it is that it will always start from India. And as an Indian, I feel really proud about this fact.

All India Chess Federation (AICF) president Sanjay Kapoor and AICF secretary and Olympiad director Bharat Singh Chauhan were also present at the event along with Tech Mahindra’s chief of strategy Jagdish Mitra and Ms. Apoorva, principal Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu.