The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Praneetha seeks financial assistance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2004

Sport

Sport - Chess

Praneetha seeks financial assistance

By V. V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, OCT. 17. For K. Lakshmi Praneetha, the Asian under-12 chess champion, it is time to focus on the game ahead of the World age group championships in Greece from November 3. But that is not quite the case.

Accompanied by her father K.V. Subba Rao and coach J. Subrahmanyam, Praneetha was at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) office, seeking financial assistance, which, ironically is due to her for her performances last year. For reasons best known to the AP Chess Association, Praneetha was one of the few players who missed out on cash incentives awarded as per the State Government's sports policy. She is due about Rs 3.5 lakh from SAAP.

Lakshmi Sahiti (under-12) and Vinuthna (under-18) are the other players from the State who will be at the Greece World championships.

Praneetha's father is a worried man now. For, if she were to make the trip to Greece and also take part in the international tournaments including the Asian championship this December, they need financial support. For someone who put up a series of creditable performances, winning the Commonwealth under-12 title in April last year, Asian Youth championship under-12, and gold in the Commonwealth chess championship in the under-20 category in the Open event (where Koneru Humpy won the women's title and Dronavalli Harika the under-18 title), it was a nightmare which could have been easily avoided by better handling of her case by the APCA and the SAAP. Apparently, what hurt them was while other performers of the same time were favoured, her name was missing.

For a player of her stature, the minimum requirement is about Rs. 2 lakh per annum and a laptop. Right now, Praneetha, a ninth standard student of Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer (Guntur), is forced to bank mostly on books even to study the games of her favourite Mikhail Tal.