Bengaluru : The valedictory ceremony of the South India Level Chess Tournament for the Visually Challenged organized by SAKSHAM Karnataka was held on Saturday 07-01-2023 at Shri Nijaguna Kshetra, Basavanagudi, Bangalore. Sri Hariharan Gandhi of Tamilnadu bagged the first place trophy by scoring 7 points in this eight rounds of tournament. Mr. Mohammed Shali of Kerala, Mr. Sai Krishna of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Sashidhar of Karnataka, Mr. Sujith Unni of Kerala secured the second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively. SAKSHAM National President Dr. Govindarajan and RSS Kshetreeya Karyavaha Mr. Thippeswamy, distributed these top 5 trophy and prizes. Mr.Thippeswamy in his speech at the valedictory ceremony said that Chess tournaments to promote sportsmanship among the divyangs will help instill in them more confidence and courage to face the challenge and congratulated SAKSHAM for their effort in organizing chess event.
Apart from these top 5 winners, top 10 winners and junior top 10, all including total 25 players were selected for National Champion in this tournament. Mr.Vinod Prakasha, SAKSHAM’s National Drishti Prakoshta convener, Mr. Shivaprasad, L&T Manager and Mr. Bhaskar, Administrator of Britannia dairy group distributed all these prizes.
Mr. Vrishank Bhat, Editor of Samvada and Vikrama Weekly, who participated as the chief guest at the beginning of the valedictory ceremony, asserted the need for eye donation to bring light in the life of visually challenged people in our country and pledged his eyes. He also extended his support in media in future for giving wide coverage for all SAKSHAM’s initiatives with social cause.
Dr. Sudhir Pai, President of SAKSHAM Karnataka in his presidential address congratulated the NSS students of RNS First Grade College who volunteered for this tournament. At the beginning of the program, two chess players who participated in the tournament shared their views and expressed their appreciation for SAKSHAM for organizing the chess event. SAKSHAM State President Shri Vasanth Madhava welcomed the guests, Pranth secretary Dr. Harikrishna Rai offered vote of thanks, SAKSHAM Bengaluru unit member Ms. Preeta was master ceremony for this program. At the end of the program the prize distribution program was conducted by the chess arbitrator Mr. Vasanth.
