Indian Chess Team From Yerawada Prison, Powered By IndianOil's Parivartan – Prison To Pride, Wins Bronze At Intercontinental Championship For Prisoners

18^th October 2022, New Delhi: Representing India, the Chess Team from Yerawada Prison, Pune, secured the Bronze medal at the recently concluded Intercontinental ‘Chess for Freedom’ Online Championship for Prisoners, organized by World Chess Federation (FIDE). This was the first time that the tournament witnessed the participation of Indian Prison Teams who competed with more than 85 teams from 46 countries. The participating Indian teams were groomed and trained under IndianOil’s “Parivartan- Prison to Pride” initiative. Under this outreach, IndianOil is facilitating training programs in various sports such as chess, basketball, badminton, volleyball and carrom across prisons in India to help improve the physical and mental well-being of inmates.

IndianOil, in association with the All India Chess Federation, selected the Indian teams for this Intercontinental Championship through the first ever “Parivartan – Prison to Pride Online Chess Tournament” wherein 20 Indian prisons took part. Teams from Pune and Prayagraj Prisons booked their berth for the Championship while the Women & Juvenile teams from Tihar Jail qualified in their respective categories.

S M Vaidya, Chairman, IndianOil, who conceptualised the “Parivartan – Prison to Pride” initiative, congratulated the medal-winning team, and said, “It is heartening that this special endeavour of IndianOil has borne fruits within such a short span of time and it validates the commitment with which our teams are stewarding such social outreaches across India. My compliments to the Yerawada team for the win. Their success strengthens our resolve to help enrich the quality of life of the communities around us. I must also laud the IndianOil Sports stars who came forward to coach these Champions”

Since its launch on 15th August 2021, IndianOil has covered 37 Prisons spanning 20 states and 5 Union Territories, coaching over 1750 inmates, in three phases. Through this outreach coaching facilities are being provided along with the equipment and kits to the participants.

International-level sportspersons from IndianOil are supervising the programme. Coaches from IndianOil include Grandmasters Esha Karavade, Soumya Swaminathan, Padmini Raut, SS Ganguly, and Abhijit Kunte in Chess; Manjusha Kanwar (former National Champion), Abhinn Shyam Gupta (Arjuna Awardee), and S Arun Vishnu (former National Champion) in Badminton; Rushmi Chakravarthi (Former National Champion) in Tennis and renowned international players Yogesh Pardesi, Mohd. Gufran, Kajal Kumari, and Ramesh Babu in Carrom.