MPL to sponsor all National Championships for the next five years.

 

The All India Chess Federation (AICF) have announced MPL Foundation as their principal sponsor, which will see MPL sponsor all of their National Championships for the next five years.

The deal is reported to be worth INR 1 crore and will be raised by 20% every year. MPL becomes the first corporate sponsor to partner with the AICF.

As part of the deal, the MPL Foundation will be the title sponsor of various championships across all formats, starting from the Under-7 age groups.

Speaking about the historic partnership, AICF President Sanjay Kapoor stated:

“We have huge plans for the sport in the country. This is one of the first steps in that direction. We are committed to keep working for the betterment of chess with the vision of making India the Number One Chess-playing nation in the world.”

AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan added:

“I am proud to say that today we have people who are very committed towards the upliftment of the game, the game has grown many folds in the last one year and this is only the beginning.”

 

The partnership comes at a time when the Indian chess scene is booming: the women’s team recently won the silver medal at the World Team Championships in Spain, while the unified team took home the bronze at the Online Chess Olympiad.

The new team members at the AICF have recently also been working on creating a COVID relief fund for the entire chess fraternity and also a welfare fund of INR 50,00,000 for the players in case of emergency situations. The AICF have also been working towards growing the game and have organised 28 national-level championships online that have seen a participation of more than 15,000 players.