Firstpost.com gets its readers to play chess with the Grandmaster

Network18’s Firstpost.com has launched an online chess championship for its readers. This fortnightly event will see Vishwanathan Anand share some of his real-life chessboard experiences with online participants as part of ‘Firstpost Battleboard’.

With a welcome video by Anand, readers are given an introduction to the game and are challenged to face actual challenges that the Chess Grandmaster has faced in his career. Interactivity becomes the prime attraction of Firstpost Battleboard as the users figure out the best possible alternative to get ahead in the game and the Grandmaster elucidates the rationale behind every move by decoding the effectiveness of all the possible alternatives. Quintessentially a cerebral online offering, this game attempts to bring together chess enthusiasts from across the world.

Speaking on the launch of Firstpost Battleboard, Durga Raghunath, VP-Products, Web18, said, “Battleboard with Vishwanathan Anand is a content innovation we are very proud of. As Firstpost continues to educate and entertain and interact, Vishwananthan Anand is a perfect partner. We hope to reach out to new audiences through efforts like these.”

Commenting on his association with Firstpost Battleboard, Anand said, “When Firstpost approached me for an online interactive platform to take chess to a wider audience, I was quite excited to do it. The aim is to take the reader through the emotion and calculation in each game. Some decisions on the board are made by intuition and some by cold calculation. It is the human element of a game that a player mostly remembers. I hope the readers enjoy the series and we look forward to a lot of interaction.”

Firstpost Battleboard is sponsored by Idea Cellular.