Youth development at the grassroots level, issomething we feel only those promoting football conduct. Now even chess is looking to go far and widein search of new players in all the 12 talukas of the state. The Goa ChessAssociation has made significant changes to its constitution to reach thegrassroots.President of the association,Ashesh Keni is hopeful of the effectiveness of this move to formulate talukaassociations. "As of now most of the competitive chess players are fromthe cities. Hence, we had to do something to explore the remote areas. Whilebigger states in India have district-level associations, the All India ChessFederation directed us to form taluka-level associations. These associationswill take chess right down to the village level," says Keni.
The changes to the constitution means that the130-odd life members of the Goa Chess Association, henceforth will not havevoting rights. Instead, the taluka associations in all the 12 talukas willempower two of their office-bearers each, to vote during the state association'selections. All talukas will now have proper representation, according to Keni.
The state sports associations have to work forall-round development of the sport, right from the grassroots level. Whilechess does not exactly look stagnant in terms of addition of new players intothe fold, the growth has been slow. Since most of the players are students,there is a regular drop of players from the active circuit when they reachStandard 10 and 12.
There is a huge potential in the untapped ruralareas of Goa where chess needs to be promoted and herein lies the challenge forthe taluka chess associations. Petty politics amongst sports administrators cangive rise to factions resulting in messy repercussions for the sport. Will thismove work or will it backfire, only time will tell. But the intention seemspositive.
