As a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiative wealth management firm, IIFL Investment Managers, are all set to support three junior events in chess, tennis and golf.
The group, under its arm EKA, will support the Under 13 global ranking chess tournament, to be held in Mumbai from December 30 to January 7, the multi-legged Asian U14 Ranking Tennis tournament whose final is to be held in Delhi from January 20-27 and the Nick Faldo golf series for five age groups whose finals are scheduled in Bengaluru from January 9 to 11.
The chess event will be done in association with the Indian Chess School, the tennis championship in partnership with the Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academies and the golf tournament in conjunction with the Rishi Narain Golf Management Group, it was announced at a media conference today.
"It's very difficult to get the Asian Tennis Federation to sanction under 14 events as very few such events are sanctioned. We are lucky to get it," said former Davis Cup player and CEO of Bhupathi academies, Gaurav Natekar.
Rishi Narain said the star attraction in the golf event, split into five categories (U16, U18 and U21 for boys and U16 and U21 for girls), would be 15-year-old sensation Harjit Sethi, who he described as "an exciting talent."
Incidentally, Gaganjeet Bhullar had also played in the tournament during his early years in 2004, the top Indian golf professional said via a video message.
The chess event will have some FIDE masters taking part in it aiming to attain International Master status and will offer Rs 8 lakh as prize money, said Indian Chess School's founder cum MD, Praful Zaveri.
"This is the third year of the tournament and it will be held along with the seniors event in which Rs 12 lakh is the prize money on offer. Abhijit Gupta, India's Commonwealth Champion, is the top seed in the seniors event which has attracted 22 Grand Masters," said Zaveri.
Former world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand, who is the patron of the event, is set to attend the last day of the championship, he added.
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