MP helps raise fund for Kovai chess player

Priyanka Kalidas, a 17-year-old from Coimbatore who had won several prizes including silver at the Commonwealth Chess Championship a year ago, was in need of financial support to take her game to the next level.

That is when the newly elected Parliamentarian came to know about her through another person.

Senthil Kumar, who is active on social media, put a post on Twitter on Saturday seeking funds to support the young girl. The amount required to make her dreams of becoming a grandmaster into reality was around Rs six lakh, he said in the post. “So the plan is to identify 300 sponsors who can deposit Rs 2,000 in her bank account. If interested, tweet me your mail ID with hashtag #sponsor_priyanka_chess I will mail you her account number. Will tag sponsor with consecutive numbers from 1 to 300,” he said, seeking support from the people following him on social media and others. He then sponsored Rs 2,000 as the first donation.

As the information about the initiative spread on social media, many came forward offering support. By Sunday night, in a little over 24 hours, the effort has found support from 19 persons, each sponsoring Rs 2,000.