Kathmandu: The United Nations (UN) recognized American organization, The Gift of Chess, has announced the founder of the Himalayan Chess Academy, Monalisha Khambu, as ‘Ambassador for Nepal’.
Gift of Chess, headquartered in New York, announced the appointment of Khambu as an ambassador on Thursday through its social media accounts. With this, 34-year-old Khambu has become the first ambassador of an international organization in Nepali chess. Gift of Chess has announced that Monalisha Khambu has been selected as an ambassador for her achievements inside and outside the board.
Posting the story of their two-decade-long journey in chess, Gift of Chess has also mentioned that 1,000 chess sets will be distributed to schools, prisons and community centers in Nepal through Khambu. Gift of Chess, a charitable organization founded in December 2020, is on a mission to distribute 1 million chess sets worldwide by 2030. They said that they have distributed 200,000 chess sets in 70 countries.
Khambu is the first women’s national chess champion, highest rated player (FIDE rating 1877), first International Arbiter (IA). She represented the country in the Asian Games (2006 Doha) at the age of 14. She has played Asian Games 2 times, Indoor Asian Games 3 times, Chess Olympiad 3 times. She is also the first Nepali woman to become an arbiter in Chess Olympiad (2022 Chennai). She is the Deputy Secretary General of the Nepal Chess Federation and is also a member of the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess of the World Chess Federation.
Since she established the Himalayan Chess Academy two years ago, she has trained more than 200 people in her own chess hall in Thapathali. The academy is giving regular chess training to schools, communities, and women with autism. Within two years, the academy has successfully organized 14 chess competitions such as classical, rapid, blitz and puzzle solving, and has also managed about three dozen competitions.
