After being bowled over, it’s now checkmate for Mt Everest

KATHMANDU - Around this time last year, Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world, was bowled over as British cricket enthusiasts played the first Twenty20 match in its lap, making it the world’s highest cricket tourney at 5165m.

And now, it is the turn of the 8848m peak to be checkmated as chess players from Brunei hold the world’s highest chess tourney even higher up.

The sultanate of Brunei has taken the game of intellect to a new height with the Brunei Chess Federation (BCF) holding the matches at the Everest base camp at 5639m.

An eight-member team from BCF trekked there as part of the Everest Trekking Amal, a charity project intended to support the government’s plans to eradicate poverty in the oil-rich nation by 2035.

Launched by the ministry of culture, youth and sport in January, the trek will raise funds for the National Welfare Fund to rebuild or rehabilitate the houses of needy families in Brunei.

The 16-day trek will cover over 120 km in the Everest region and end in the tourney in the lap of Mt Everest.

The games, which started Tuesday, will continue till May 2, unaffected by the nationwide general strike announced by the Maoists from that day.

However, the strike may affect the return of the players with the former guerrillas calling for a halt to all transport.

After their return to Kathmandu, the Brunei team is expected to hold a few friendly matches with Nepali players.

When Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first men to summit Mt Everest in 1953, it was thought to be a life-threatening job, if not impossible.

But now, the world’s biggest mountain is game for any sport. It has seen a wedding on its summit and a bare-all feat.

Nepal’s Sherpa community, known for their climbing prowess, say their young men regularly play football and volleyball in the Everest base camp area though they have never got any publicity.

The world’s highest chess tourney comes at a time new records are expected to be made on the Everest next month.

A 13-year-old American boy, Jordan Romero, could become the youngest climber to scale the peak while a 71-year-old Japanese woman, Eiko Funahashi, is aiming to become the oldest woman to achieve the feat.

The best known climber is Apa Sherpa, the living Everest legend, who has climbed the mountain the highest number of times so far - 19 - and is seeking to best his own record.