All Bihar Chess Association was established with its erstwhile name ‘BIHAR CHESS ASSOCIATION’ on 30 September 1968. BCA was registered under Bihar Societies Act 1960 bearing Registration No. 60 of 1968-69. It got affiliation from ALL INDIA CHESS FEDERATION in 1969. The AICF is the apex body for chess in the country which is affiliated with Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE)/ or World Chess Federation.
“It was sometimes in 1967-1968, when Prof. Shiv Shankar Prasad Verma, a lecturer of Engineering College, Patna (NIT, Patna) as also a chess lover took initiative towards forming a state level chess body in Bihar. He spoke to some of his fellow correspondence chess players in All India Chess Federation including Bihar players. Having obtained the ‘Go-ahead’ signal from AICF officials, ‘Bihar Chess Association’ was formally established at his Boring Road residence (presently Verma Complex). Mrityunjay Prasad, the then LIC Divisional Manager, Patna (son of Dr Rajendra Prasad, President of India) and Dr A S Mehta (Patna Science College) were elected as its first President and Secretary respectively. Since, some of the other known local chess enthusiasts like A R Khan, Dr P.N.Sharma etc. could not attend that particular meeting, their names are not found on record in the list of founder members available with Registration Department, Govt. of Bihar. Incidentally, with passage of time, ‘Bihar Chess Association’ became increasingly known as ‘Bihar State Chess Association’.
Soon after its establishment a state chess championship was organized in LIC Patna office. Uma Shankar Prasad of LIC won the championship amidst many known stalwarts like late B K Srivastava and Sheonath Prasad, Some known names of that period to reckon with were Ved Prakash Sinha, R P Singh, Maheshwar Mishra, Kalimuddin Ahmed, Muhammad Mustafa, Prabhu Narayan Lal etc.. A couple of months after the championship as also after AICF affiliation was obtained in 1969, a fresh State Championship was, conducted in the able guidance of Iqbal Krishna, a renowned chess columnist of India and a Delhi based reputed chess player. The first Bihar six-member Chess team led by the winner Sheonath Prasad participated in the National B Chess Championship 1969 held at Bangalore. That is why Sheonath Prasad of P&T is regarded as the first official Bihar Champion. His fellow colleague B K Srivastava of P&T soon established himself as the strongest chess player by winning Bihar Champion for five times during his more than a decade long chess career. Undoubtedly he was, as he got 10th position in the National B Chess Championship held at Shimla in 1972.
However, it is a myth that Chess tournaments were not organized in Bihar prior to establishment of Bihar Chess Association. AR Khan of Crescent Club, Patna used to organize chess tournaments regularly and so was the case with Muzaffarpur, Ranchi, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga and other districts of undivided Bihar. Chess tournaments were organized by local chess enthusiasts since the time unknown. But the games were played in ‘Deshi’ form in which playing rules slightly varied from place to place!