Bhubaneswar: Chess legend Viswanathan Anand, India’s first Grandmaster, has been chosen for the prestigious SJFI Medal 2024 for his outstanding contribution to the development of the sport in India for a period of four decades.
This was unanimously decided at the annual general meeting (AFM) of the Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI) in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
Previous recipients of the SJFI Medal have been Vijay Amritraj, Prakash Padukone, Sunil Gavaskar, Milkha Singh (posthumous) and P T Usha.
After the Indian men’s and women’s teams won the Chess Olympiad titles in Budapest last year, none other than Russian icon Garry Kasparov attributed the growth of the 64-square board game in India to the achievements of former World champion Anand.
The 55-year-old Anand won the World Championship five times and the World Rapid Chess Championship twice. He is also a two-time Chess World Cup champion, besides being World Blitz Chess Cup winner.
