India's Olympic medal-winning hockey players swapped their sticks for chess sets as all of them were given an introductory class on the basics of the board game in a first-of-its-kind initiative by chief coach Craig Fulton, reports Swaroop Swaminathan of The New Indian Express.

The main objective of the mandatory session, according to Fulton, 'was to be aware of strategy'. "Strategy in our game is crucial," he told The New Indian Express after the drill finished. "We have a particular strategy on the ball, a particular strategy off the ball. There's a similar correlation in chess with respect to start, middlegame and endgame."

The South African Fulton, who has not shied away from having these kind of one off events when in camp (they have one centred around kabaddi too), added: "When you look at a hockey match, we have four quarters. You can never really win a match in the first two quarters, it's all about how you finish. Start strong, finish stronger, that's the philosophy.

"It's always better when we can expose our players to other sports," Fulton added. That was the basis around which he organised a team bonding session with a rugby match acting as a backdrop. It was to show the players a physical sport where contact is important.

The session, taken by Prachura Padakannaya, an International Master (IM), even saw him go up against the duo of Harmanpreet Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad. "I loved the session," the latter told this daily. "The best thing about the session was he was able to share with the players how an elite chess player thinks. Like he told us that an international player is thinking eight or nine moves ahead which I found very fascinating." Padakannaya, who represented India in various age-group World Championships, is now part owner of the American Gambits team in the Global Chess League (GCL).

Going forward, there are some plans to promote some intra-squad games. "I mean, sure," Fulton said. "We can maybe have some five minute blitz games, with the beginners playing against each other and the intermediates facing each other and so on."