Who was the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting award?
- A.Viswanathan Anand
- B.Kapil Dev
- C.PT Usha
- D.Leander Paes
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Viswanathan Anand. The award, instituted in 1991 and now named the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, went in its very first year to the chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, who had turned Grandmaster three years earlier and was then rising rapidly in world chess. He was later honoured with the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan. Option B is wrong because Kapil Dev, who led India to the cricket World Cup in 1983, received the Arjuna Award and the Padma Bhushan but not the first Khel Ratna. Option C is wrong because the athlete PT Usha, despite her Asian Games record, was honoured with the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri. Option D is wrong because the tennis player Leander Paes received the Khel Ratna later in the decade.
Read the full article: Chess and Indian Grandmasters: Firsts, Titles and Records
Practice Questions
View allThe modern game of chess is believed to have developed from which ancient Indian game?
- A.Chaturanga
- B.Pachisi
- C.Gilli Danda
- D.Chausar
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Chaturanga was played in India in the Gupta age and its name means four limbs, standing for the four divisions of an ancient army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
Read the full explanation →Who became the first Grandmaster of India?
- A.Pentala Harikrishna
- B.Viswanathan Anand
- C.Manuel Aaron
- D.Dibyendu Barua
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Anand, born in Mayiladuthurai and brought up in Chennai, earned the Grandmaster title in 1988 while still a teenager and became the first Indian to hold the highest lifetime title awarded by FIDE.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first Indian woman to be awarded the Grandmaster title?
- A.Koneru Humpy
- B.Dronavalli Harika
- C.Tania Sachdev
- D.Vaishali Rameshbabu
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Humpy, from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, earned the open Grandmaster title in 2002 while in her teens, and at that time she was the youngest woman in the world to have done so.
Read the full explanation →How many squares are there on a standard chessboard?
- A.36
- B.49
- C.64
- D.81
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A chessboard is a square divided into eight rows, called ranks, and eight columns, called files, so the number of squares is 8 multiplied by 8, that is 64.
Read the full explanation →In which year was FIDE, the international chess federation, founded?
- A.1912
- B.1924
- C.1936
- D.1951
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FIDE, the Federation Internationale des Echecs, was founded in Paris in 1924, and its motto is Gens una sumus, a Latin phrase meaning we are one people.
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