Just three days ago, on November 2, 2017, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, visited India for four days with his family and met the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Bhutanese Monarch and his family were given a warm welcome, However, it was the king's one-and-a-half-year-old son, Prince Jigme Namgyal Wangchuck who 'aww'-ed all eyes.
While the meeting was considered important in the light of the recent 73-day-long standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam region of Bhutan, some of our most important leaders -- including the PM himself -- couldn't resist showering gifts on the little Bhutanese prince-charming.
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PM Modi has always been a staunch supporter of the game of chess. In fact, back in 2010, at the launch of Swarnim Gujarat Chess Mahotsav. PM Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, had described chess as a stress-killer and said that the game is capable of giving a direction in life. He also expressed his desire to ask psychologists to study the effects of chess on the human mind and arrange a workshop on it. Not to mention, a world record was set at this very place as 20483 players assembled to play chess on one platform.
Taking all of this into account, this gesture by the PM of gifting a chess set to the Bhutanese Prince -- no matter in how subtle a manner -- helps promote the game of chess. And whether or not it was inadvertent, this definitely shows that even if it is at a subconscious level, our Prime Minister has the game of chess on his mind!
And this gesture did not go unnoticed by our undisputed king of Indian chess Vishy Anand:
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