World Rapid Chess Champion Koneru Humpy has been nominated for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award by the All India Chess Federation (AICF). While Vidit Gujrathi, MR Lalith Babu, Adhiban Baskaran, SP Sethuraman, Padmini Rout and Bhakti Kulkarni have been recommended for the Arjuna Award. Coach Abhijit Kunte has been nominated for the Major Dhyan Chand award. "AICF has nominated Koneru Humpy for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. While Vidit S Gujrathi, MR Lalith Babu, Adhiban Bhaskarani, SP Sethuraman, Padmini Rout, and Bhakti Kulkarni have been recommended for the Arjuna Award and Abhijit Kunte for Major Dhyan Chand Award," a source in the known developments told ANI.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had earlier decided to extend the last date of submission of application for the upcoming National Sports Awards 2021.
Earlier, the last date for submitting applications was June 21. The nominations/applications from the eligible sportspersons/ coaches/ entities/ universities were invited for the award and they were to be e-mailed as per an official statement from the ministry.
Meanwhile, in another good news from the chess fraternity, 12-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra on Wednesday became the youngest grandmaster in history.
The 12-year-old player from New Jersey scored his third GM norm in Budapest, having already crossed the required 2500 Elo rating barrier.
Mishra broke GM Sergey Karjakin's record that was standing for 19 years. On August 12, 2002, Karjakin, a world championship challenger in 2016, secured the grandmaster title at the age of 12 years and seven months.