IIT Madras unveils plans to make India a global chess powerhouse

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (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 is aimed at enhancing fan engagement, providing solutions for federations to flag cheating and chess training programmes to further grow the sports at the grassroots level, the institute said.

This was revealed at the ‘Sports Tech Start Up Conclave’ being organised in New Delhi by IIT Madras CESSA, a release here said. 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."

"We would like to be shown the path to support various stakeholders in the sports ecosystem through this forum," he said and added that the entire country was proud of IIT Madras, especially the way it has developed various technologies. IIT-M director Prof V Kamakoti said chess was a very interesting and thought-provoking sport that involved a lot of pattern-matching and strategies.

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"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. IIT Madras was very keen to develop such platforms with a objective of making Bharat a global chess powerhouse, he added.

IIT Madras CESSA also plans to offer courses for upgrading skills and undertake specific steps to train various players in the sports value chain in India as part of its sports education initiatives covering sportspersons, PE instructors, coaches, referees, analysts, physiologists, nutritionists, umpires, sports presenters and management personnel.

As part of this, IIT Madras CESSA plans to launch five new courses in sports on NPTEL in the coming months, the release said. Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, and Head of CESSA, Prof Mahesh Panchagnula, said, the IIT Madras launched innovative technology-driven initiatives in sports today, which aimed at revolutionising sports education, empowering chess federations with anti-cheating solutions, and pioneer grassroots training programmes.

Also under consideration are courses in AI/ML and Data Science Certificate courses. IIT-M also plans to launch Bachelor of Sports Science course and a Bachelors and Masters in Sports Management in the future, the release said.