Benazir Ahmed, elected President of the regional chess body in the inaugural congress of the newly formed South Asian Chess Council held at the Conference Hall of FARS Hotel & Resorts in the capital on Friday.
FIDE Vice President GM Nigel Short, Adviser of FIDE President Berik Balgabaev, President of FIDE Zone-3.2 and General Secretary of Bangladesh Chess Federation Syed Shahab Uddin Shamim and member of FIDE Ethics Commission Rajesh Hari Joshi were also present at the congress, chaired by Benazir Ahmed.
General Secretaries of Afghanistan National Chess Federation, Bhutan Chess Federation, Maldives Chess Association, Nepal Chess Association, Pakistan Chess Federation and Sri Lankan Chess Federation were also present in the first congress.
Constitution of the South Asian Chess Council was approved in the congress and an eight-member executive committee was also formed on the day.
Apart from President Benazir Ahmed, Dharmendra Kumar, International Arbiter of India was elected Deputy President, Ram Thapa, Vice-President of Nepal Chess Association elected Vice President, G. Luxman Wijesuria, Delegate of Sri Lankan Chess Federation elected General Secretary while Lekey Dorji, President of Bhutan Chess Federation named as Treasurer.
Three elected executive committee members are: Senator Kalsoom Parveen, President of Chess Federation of Pakistan, Hussain Shiyan, President of Maldives Chess Association and Ghulam Ali Malak Zad, President of Afghanistan National Chess Federation while Arun Muthusamy of England appointed as Chief Executive Director.