IIT Madras introduces plans to make India 'global chess powerhouse'; provide training in sports domain

NEW DELHI: IIT Madras Centre of Excellence in Sports Science and Analytics (CESSA) on Saturday unveiled plans to make India a global chess powerhouse using technology-driven tools. The initiative aims to enhance at providing solutions for federations to flag cheating and chess training programmes to further grow the sports at the grassroots level.

The announcement was made at day two of the ‘Sports Tech Start Up Conclave’ being organised in New Delhi by IIT Madras CESSA. The conclave is sponsored by Dream Sports, Vedanta and SFA Play.

Addressing the conclave, Sandip Pradhan, Director-General, Sports Authority of India (SAI) said, "we will be very happy to collaborate through IIT Madras CESSA to support products that can be integrated into sports bodies."

IIT Madras director V Kamakoti said chess was a very interesting and thought-provoking sport that involved a lot of pattern-matching and strategies.

"High-performance computing and Artificial Intelligence can play a very crucial role that can aid chess players during the training phase by enumerating several scenarios and the best possible game plans for those," he said.

Courses to trains individuals across sports industry domains

IIT Madras CESSA intends to provide courses aimed at enhancing skills and training individuals across different roles within the sports industry in India as part of its sports education initiatives.

These courses will cater to a wide range of professionals including athletes, physical education instructors, coaches, referees, analysts, physiologists, nutritionists, umpires, sports presenters, and management personnel.

As part of this initiative, IIT Madras CESSA plans to roll out five new sports courses on NPTEL in the upcoming months.