Kolkata: A chess tournament was recently held to raise funds and offer a helping hand to thalassaemia patients, struggling with mounting economic burden for regular blood transfusions, bone marrow transplant and other therapies. “Thalassaemia patients need blood transfusion every two to five weeks, depending on the severity of a case. They also need iron chelation therapy to prevent iron overload and organ damage. Their economic burden is high,” said a state health official. About 10% of the population in Bengal are thalassemia carriers and a child born to carrier couples has a 25% chance of being thalassaemic.While govt hospitals provide free treatment, expenses at private facilities are high. A health official said a bone marrow transplant was done free at NRS and MCH, but at private hospitals, it cost Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. “There are 22,000 thalassaemia patients who get regular blood transfusion from govt facilities,” he said.Lake Club on Sunday hosted Chessmeet-2026, a charity tournament to raise awareness as well as funds for such patients. Jointly held by Chess Meet Foundation and Mind Game Chess Academy, the event brought together participants from diverse professions and age groups, highlighting the role of chess in promoting both social welfare and cognitive health. State finance minister Swapan Dasgupta, MoS for public health and labour departments Bhaskar Bhattacharya, and chess grandmaster Dibyendu Barua were present at the event. The organisers presented a cheque for Rs 50,000 to the Thalassaemia Control and Awareness Society.Jayanta Sarkar, CEO of Mind Game Chess Academy, and Anirban Mukherjee, secretary of the Chess Meet Foundation, pledged their commitment to supporting similar initiatives through chess.Among other dignitaries present were president of State Kabaddi Association Parthasarathy Ganguly, Justice Kausik Chanda, CU VC Ashutosh Ghosh and president of Bengal Olympic Association Chandan Roy Chowdhury.Agneem Dutta emerged as the champion in the rating category, while Kirit Bikram Chanda and Aabir Dutta finished as second and third runners-up. Champions in the other categories included Anirban Dharitriputra, Arijit Sinha, Udayan Kanti Ghosh, Debansh Addi, Indrajit Dutta, Shreya Ghosh and Shanta Biswas. B
