Mumbai: Indian chess grandmaster and former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand will play a ‘Checkmate Covid’ match against the country's celebrities and businessmen to raise funds for the Akshaya Patra Foundation's COVID-19 relief efforts.
The ‘Checkmate Covid’ series will feature 5-time world champion, Viswanathan Anand, playing ten Indian celebrities and business leaders - five in one-hour simulation games at once. These include Aamir Khan, Kiccha Sudeep, Riteish Deshmukh, singer Arijit Singh, singer-songwriter Ananya Birla, cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal, Xiaomi India MD Manu Kumar Jain, Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, producers Sajid Nadiadwala and Parchura Padakannaya.
All proceeds from this charity event will go to serving helpless individuals and their families who are struggling with hunger during this devastating second wave of the pandemic.
The charity event is a part of the Checkmate COVID-Celebrity Edition by Chess.com India and in association with Akshaya Patra, Prachura Padakannaya, CEO - Extra Talent Management, is also a part of the event. It will be held on June 13, 2021, at 5.00 PM and will be live-streamed on India's official YouTube channel Chess.com.
Akshaya Patra Foundation is serving relief meals in 19 states and one union territory through its network. Since March 2020, the foundation has served food to over 128 million helpless people who are facing difficulty in arranging food for themselves due to the COVID-19 pandemic and measures to contain the outbreak.
Meanwhile, speaking on the work front, Aamir Khan will be next seen featuring in a lead role in the upcoming movie ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ opposite Kareena Kapoor Khan. This movie is the Hindi remake of the 1994 American film ‘Forrest Gump’ which starred Tom Hanks in the lead role.
Stay tuned for more updates.