English opening

AICF Secretary Dev Patel: Getting the game of chess included in the National Games, Khelo India, taking chess to the schools and grassroots level to make more people play and showing that chess could be a career option are some of the plans of the newly elected Secretary of All India Chess Federation (AICF) Dev A. Patel.

He also said there is no such thing as the emergence of the Patel dynasty in the Indian chess management world. "I will work towards getting Chess to become part of the National Games, Khelo India. It is one huge barrier to be crossed," Dev Patel told IANS.

According to him, out of about 140 crore Indians, there are only about 23,000 AICF registered players.