PESHAWAR:The 24th edition of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Qualifying Chess Championship on Saturday got underway at SS Club University Road, where over 87 competitors from all across the province turned up.
Member Board of Revenue Adil Shah was the chief guest who formally inaugurated the Championship. Secretary General of Pakistan Chess Federation and President of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chess Association Umar Khan, and Secretary Kashif Saleem were also present on the occasion.
In this championship, more than 87 men, women and young players from different districts including Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, Kohat, Malakand, Swat, Dir, Shangla, Chitral, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan are taking part.
In these competitions, there are children’s categories along with the open category, wherein great enthusiasm is witnessed among the competitors as after a long time the Chess Championship is being organized in the city.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Adil Shah said that it was a pleasure to see a large number of men, women and children in these competitions, and that the game of chess was also being liked and played in the province.
He said that the Director General Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Captain (R) Khalid Mahmood advised the KP Chess Association that the game of Chess should be promoted in the province, rather “this game should be made compulsory in educational institutions”.
Speaking on the occasion, Provincial Chess Association President Umar Khan said that the provincial association was regularly organizing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district- and provincial-level tournaments every year.
“The players of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are being sent to the national level competitions as well,” Umar informed. He said that all the competitions were being held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa according to the rules and regulations of the World Chess Federation and the results of these competitions could be seen online on the website of the World Chess Federation.
He said that due to the large number of players in these competitions, competitions were also organized in Children’s category and open category. The number of players in each of these categories was quite high, Umar added.