Every sport has its own mascot. And it turns out this Chess tournament in Chennai is not lagging behind. A Twitter user posted a picture of the mascot of the tournament – a knight in a veshti. Very much in line with the local spirit.

We have mascots for National Basketball Association, Olympics, and FIFA. Closer home, there have been mascots too. Shera, for the Commonwealth Games 2010, does stand out. But this mascot has everyone’s attention now. The internet is left in splits seeing the mascot and Twitter is amazed by it. Some netizens have spotted an uncanny resemblance with a very popular pop-culture character *wink wink*. And this is what ensued.

The mascot is true to the vibe of Chennai. We dug deeper and found out that the mascot is named Thambi. It is the official logo for the International Chess Olympiad to be held in Mahabalipuram near Chennai from July 28 to August 10. The olympiad is the first of its kind in India and will see more than 350 teams from across the globe participating in the same.