La Liga football meets chess in Kochi

by Shahid Ahmed - 14/08/2018

Six top players of India took on Champions of Spain and Girona FC footballers part of Toyota Yaris La Liga World international preseason football tournament in Kochi between 25th and 28th July 2018. David Anton, Ivan Salgado, Miguel Santos, Sabrina Vega, Ana Matnadze and Marta Garcia were representing the Spanish team along with coach David Martinez. Indian team consisted of S L Narayanan, Abhimanyu Puranik, Diptayan Ghosh, Harshit Raja, Soumya Swaminathan and Kiran Manisha Mohanty with coach Vishal Sareen. The friendly camp took place in Kochi Marriott Hotel. Photo: LaLiga4Sports facebook

La Liga brings football and chess in Kochi

The Indian and Spanish Chess teams | Photo: LaLiga4Sports facebook

GM S L Narayanan, GM Diptayan Ghosh, GM Abhimanyu Puranik, IM Raja Harshit, WGM Soumya Swaminathan and WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty attended a unique camp with GM David Anton, GM Ivan Salgado, GM Miguel Santos, IM Sabrina Vega, IM Ana Matnadze and FM Marta Garcia along with Vishal Sareen and David Martinez respectively as their coaches.

The camp had a lot of fun elements, like in the video below:

Abhimanyu Puranik and David Anton are playing a Bullet (1 minute each) game, but they are also saying a name after making each move. Can you guess whose names they are mentioning? Video: LaLiga4Sports facebook

Anton David and Miguel Santos plays friendly chess on a boat | Photo: LaLiga4Sports facebook

Custom chess board made for LaLiga World | Photo: LaLiga4Sports facebook

Both Team India and Team Spain took on local players of Kochi at Marine Drive's Rainbow Bridge on 26th July 2018.

Miguel Santos takes on local chess player as local people spectate | Photo: LaLiga4Sports facebook

Champions of Spain and India play street chess in Kochi | Video: LaLiga4Sports facebook

The entire Indian and Spanish team along with their coaches | Photo: LaLiga4Sports facebook

It was finally time for the Indian and Spanish chess team to take on Girona FC football team.

Soumya Swaminathan and David Anton plays simultaneous match against Girona FC | Video: LaLiga4Sports facebook

Girona FC players share their thoughts | Video: LaLiga4Sports facebook

Girona FC tweets about it's players and coaching staff facing the Indian professional chess players | Source: Girona FC twitter

Champions of Spain with the Indian chess players | Source: LaLiga4Sports twitter

Soumya Swaminathan tweets from the stadium | Source: Soumya Swaminathan's twitter

The entire event was part of Toyota Yaris La Liga World international pre-season football tournament which took place in Kochi between 25th and 28th July 2018