Former World champion Vladimir Kramnik hailed Grandmaster P. Iniyan for his stupendous fund-raising effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kramnik, in a video message, praised the 17-year-old.
“I thank Iniyan for his efforts. It doesn’t actually matter how much money you manage to raise. I think it’s a very good initiative and a very important example for everyone,” said Kramnik.
Between May 15 and 18, Iniyan’s online ‘chess marathon’ generated more than ₹1.20 lakh. Incredibly, the youngster played 271 opponents spread over 74 hours.
Similar event
“We organised a similar charity event in Russia and managed to collect quite a serious amount of money for various hospitals,” said Kramnik. “With the pandemic all over the world, it is also a harsh but very useful reminder to all of us of some core values which we, in my opinion, forgot a bit, lately: that we are all human beings, we are all one unit in this world and we should be trying to be less individualistic.
“Maybe, we should pay less attention to consumption and try to help each other, especially in these difficult times.”
