In a bid to encourage sports participation amongst college students, Punjab Technical University has announced scholarship for those students who have won top spots in the National level Inter-University Chess competitions. Princedeep and Anima, 6th semester engineering students of Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Landran recently availed 100% scholarship for the next 2 semesters worth Rs. 60,000 each from Punjab Technical University for their consecutive 3 years participation in All India Inter-University Chess Tournament (Girls) since 2016. Princedeep hails from Muktsar, Punjab while Anima is a resident of Bihar who has been an active chess player since the age of 5. While disclosing their practice routine they said that online chess gaming applications are the best source of practice these days because of their cost effectiveness and mobile usage. Along with maintaining an academic record with 85% marks Anima keeps herself occupied with online chess practice. She said, “The technological advancement in the field of online gaming is an aid to student players who do not have the necessary time to practice their game in order to keep a pace with the contemporary education”.
While taking about the growing participation of Girls in national level competitions Princedeep said, “We started taking part in chess competitions in 2016. At that time there was no separate team for girls but last year a solely dedicated chess tournament for girls was organised by Punjab Technical University and our college CGC Landran stood 3rd in the North Zone Inter- University chess tournament.” The girls plan to keep their chess playing skills alive always as the game has no age bar and can lend them a government job anytime in future.