Fiji Times - 31/01/10

National champion and schoolteacher Kumar was endorsed as Fiji's representative during the Fiji Chess Federation annual general meeting at the Fiji Olympic House yesterday.

FCF president Dr Virgilio De Asa said national team members for the World Chess Olympiad in late September in Russia would be confirmed later.

Dr De Asa said 2009 was a "busy and successful year" for FCF with plans to host an international event in Nadi this year.

"We're looking at incorporating the Fiji National Championship into a bigger event to be called Fiji International Open," he said.

"It's in the pipeline and we hope to confirm a major sponsor soon."

Already FCF has support of major Nadi hotels Radisson and Hilton to stage the event.

"For competition venue and accommodation, we'-re looking at special rates ," Dr De Asa said.

He hopes FCF will continue to build on the success enjoyed last year.

Dr De Asa said FCF had close to 300 active chess players participating in its various competitions.

"We have 17 internationally rated players in Fiji and five candidate master title holders including Manoj, Calvin Prasad, Sanmogam Gou-nder, Dr Virgilio De Asa Junior and Australia-based Damian Norris.

"Five schools -- Univer-sity of the South Pacific, Marist Brothers High School, Yat Sen Secon-dary School, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial and Bhawani Dayal Arya Coll-ege have also become affiliated members of FCF.

"We have Krishneel Na-ir, who acquired the Federation of Interntion-ale des Echecs (FIDE) arbiter title and myself, the international organiser title," he said.

FCF new office bearers:

President: Dr Virgilio De Asa; Vice-presidents: Calvin Prasad and Gloria Sukhu

Secretary: Dr Jashint Maharaj; Assistant secretary: Gaurav Raicar

Treasurer: Manoj Kumar

Committee members: Goru Arvind, Dr Neel Arora, Krishneel Nair, Asheel Singh and Noel Adricula

Arbiters committee: Krishneel Nair, Gaurav Raicar, Dr Jashint Maharaj and Gloria Sukhu

Accounts committee: Dr Virgilio De Asa, Manoj Kumar, Calvin Prasad and Dr Neel Arora