Indian journalist Niklesh Jain proposes Colombian Grandmaster at Chess Olympiad

Indian chess player turned journalist Niklesh Jain shocked the world when he proposed Colombian player Angela Franco in the middle of the ongoing Batumi Olympiad in Georgia on Tuesday.

The former Indian Chess player later revealed to chess.com in a video posted on YouTube that he had already planned the proposal before the tournament.

“I think for a chess player, what better than Chess Olympiad, we are 189 countries and for us, this is our temple. So I thought I can do this.”

The incident took place before the start of the second round in which Angela was taking part. It was in the main hall where many matches were taking place and that is when Niklesh decided to go ahead with his plans.

He knelt down and took out a ring, which left Angela surprised but she agreed to the proposal applauses rang in the room.

“Actually I am a chess player and she is too. There were a few places where I could have proposed her, but then I thought what better could it be then the Chess Olympiads,” added Niklesh.

Niklesh also informed that he had informed his girlfriend’s sister before-hand and she had agreed to it.

“In the morning, I told her sister, her sister is also a grandmaster, so I told her about my plan and we decided to do it here.”

“The world is for peace, for love and there’s no language, no colour, no bar or anything. We should be a good human being and this is good for the world,” Niklesh added.

“I had been planning this for some time. We have been dating for 1.5 years after we met in Barcelona in the Catalan circuit. We were playing our matches next to each other. I won that game against a tough opponent, even though I was not trying to impress her. But we started talking.”

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