NIIT MindChampions Academy's 1st Schools Tournament

65000 students to compete for the National School Champion Crown

Hyderabad, September 11, 2004

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World Rapid Chess and NIIT MindChampion Viswanathan Anand today launched the NIIT MindChampions Academy's 1st Schools Chess Tournament. NIIT MindChampions Academy is a joint initiative of the IT training pioneer NIIT and chess ace Viswanathan Anand.

Dr IV Subba Rao, Principal Secretary-School Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh graced the occasion.

During the first leg of the tournament, over 65,000 students are expected to compete across 1500 locations in various schools over a period of 4 months. The winners from various cities and states would compete with each other to vie for the National Champion Crown. After the initial phase the tournament across cities would be played over the Internet.

It has been envisaged that finalists of the tournament would get to match their skills against the Grandmaster Vishy Anand early next year.

Speaking on the launch of the tournament, Mr L Balasubramanian, President NIIT K-12 Group said, "The NIIT MindChampions Academy School Tournament is a culmination of a dream and efforts of NIIT and world Rapid Chess and NIIT MindChampion Viswanathan Anand in popularising the game of Chess."

NIIT MindChampions Academy when launched just over a year ago with the objective of initiating students to learn Chess in some select government schools, has today fostered over 1500 clubs with more than 65,000 students as its members in these schools where NIIT offers computer education.

The tournament aims at initiating these young minds on a path of excellence in Chess exemplified by the indisputable master of the game, Viswanathan Anand.

Expressing his happiness and satisfaction on the initiative, NIIT MindChampion Viswanathan Anand said, "The 'NIIT MindChampions Academy's Tournament is an exciting idea to discover the hidden talent from India's remote locations, groom them and popularise Chess in its country of origin. Though many more youngsters are playing Chess today, it is yet to achieve popularity levels of some other sports."

The NIIT-Viswanathan Anand joint initiative exposes students in the age group of 10-15 years, to the world of Chess. The students use computers in their school as a virtual playfield to practice on Chess software.

"NIIT's presence in over 2500 schools will help achieve that goal and I am glad NIIT is investing in popularising this game that could lead to these students improving their scores in studies," Anand added.

The NIIT MindChampions Academy promotes chess skills among school through free computer-based chess tutorials, during and after school. The tutorials will soon be available to these school students at NIIT's virtual learning portal Netvarsity.com as well. Apart from tutorials, promising Chess players will have the opportunity to interact with Anand himself through the Internet as well as in person at regular intervals.

The NIIT MindChampions Academy will leverage its inherent strength in technology to build a virtual community of Chess enthusiasts in the country. Students would be able to participate in the Academy's activities both at school as well as from home.

The Academy has Viswanathan Anand, Rajendra S Pawar, L Balasubramanian and few eminent world Chess personalities on its Advisory Body.

NIIT felicitates Viswanathan Anand on splendid performance in 2004
NIIT also felicitated Viswanathan Anand, India's finest chess player ever on his splendid performance this year. The NIIT Brand Ambassador, with two classical chess titles besides retaining his Chess Classic of Mainz title, is headed once again for a brilliant year, during which he will also lead an Indian team at the Chess Olympiad in Spain in October 2004.

Anand, who won six titles, five of them in rapid, in 2003, has been in winning form once again. In 2004, he went one better than 2003, by winning both the Classical events he played in Wijk Aan Zee and Dortmund. Last year he won only the Wijk Aan Zee event, besides finishing second at Dortmund and tying for third at Linares. This year Anand did not play Linares.

Anand is now widely regarded as the best all-round player in classical chess and rapid chess. He is also one of the best in blitz chess, where a player is required to complete all moves in five minutes.

About NIIT
NIIT, an acknowledged leader in the IT and IT-assisted training space offers Learning and Knowledge Solutions in 33 countries. Training over 500,000 learners annually, NIIT is the only Asian Education and Training Organization to feature among the IDC Top 20 Global IT Training market leaders, for four consecutive years. NIIT has trained one out of every three IT professionals and its alumni are working at all top IT companies.

NIIT's education offerings include: GNIIT--an industry-endorsed program for students seeking careers in the IT and BPO segments; CATS--offers training programs on advanced technologies for IT professionals; Swift--a platform for equipping ordinary people with basic computer skills; NetVarsity.com offers a blend of content, technology and services; while NIIT@School--a turnkey, IT integration program that provides computer-based learning in government and private schools.

NIIT's range of offerings in the e-learning domain are bolstered by its SEI CMM Level 5 assessed Knowledge Solutions business (KSB), which has emerged as a leader in the field. NIIT KSB offers integrated learning solutions that range from strategy and design to development, implementation and administration. Its customers include Fortune 500 Companies, Universities, Technology Companies, Training Corporations and Publishing houses.

For further details, please contact:
Geetanjali Sharma, NIIT Ltd., Phone: +91(11) 26203377; Fax: +91(11) 26203386; E-mail: geetanjalis@niit.com
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