The great survivor of Indian chess

AS HE talks about the prospects of the Indian team for the chess Olympiad, there is a twinkle in D. V. Prasad's eyes. The 38-year- old is more excited about the Olympiad, which begins at Istanbul later this month, than even P. Harikrishna, the 14-year-old prodigy who will be making his debut.

It is this undying passion for the game that makes Prasad the great survivor in Indian chess that he is. That has helped him qualify to play for India in seven Olympiads. That has made him a permanent fixture in India's strongest domestic tourney, the National men's `A' for the past 16 years. And that has helped him withstand the might of the whizkids who have no mercy for the ageing stalwarts.

He is the Robin Singh of Indian chess. And like the gallant cricketer from Chennai, Prasad is the ultimate team man. He is always willing to take great risks for the sake of his side in team events. The youngsters in this Indian team may be stronger and in better form than him at present, but his vast experience will be of great use in Turkey, where India is fielding its best side since Anand stopped playing in Olympiads.

And it was not easy for Prasad to make it to this Indian team, which has an average rating of 2510 Elo points (which is Grandmaster strength). In a gruelling 18-round National `A' - the strongest ever - he had to fight hard to claim one of the six spots.

``No doubt the National `A' is a very tough tournament these days, because of the big advance chess has made in this country. Unlike in the past, we have a lot of talented youngsters, and everyone today does his homework using computers,'' said Prasad during a long chat with The Hindu the other day.

``When I made my debut at National `A' in 1982 in Kanpur, only a few players had theoretical knowledge about the game, like Manuel Aaron, Ravi Hegde and Shekhar Sahu and me to an extent, because there was no chess software then and, of course, no internet. Even the books on chess were not readily available. But we were able to play some very original games those days, unlike today when you are most of the time copying a game played by some others. Even a new idea is not a novelty, it often turns out; it was played in some recent tournament, you are told,'' says the IOC employee, settled in Bangalore.

As the friendly International Master tells you about his long career, which is far from over by any means, the telephone at his room in Hotel Asma Tower in Kozhikode often demands his attention. To one call, he replies in Tamil, and to another, a little later, in Telugu.

And of course he speaks Kannada too. ``Since my father was employed with the Railways, I studied in different places,'' he explains. ``Telugu is my mother tongue, but I have been at Bangalore almost throughout my life.''

It was his father, Venkataraman, who taught him the game. In 1980 he was placed second in the Asian junior championship in Philippines. ``Unlike today, there were not many age-group tournaments then, just the National junior championship.''

The big break came in 1985 when he finished sixth in the National `A' championship at Tenali, and qualified for the Indian team for the Olympiad. Since then he has done well enough to remain in National `A' - only the top players in the country are eligible to play in it - all these years. In 1990, he had to play in National `B', the qualifying event for the `A', after finishing seventh in the 1989 National `A' at Bikaner. But at Kozhikode, in 1990, he won the National `A' for the first time, which he retained a year later.

Prasad completed his IM title in 1986 at the Commonwealth championship in London, which he won. He was playing the best chess of his career then. He had won the Asian zonal championship in Doha in 1985, scoring 12 points from 15 rounds. ``It was a good experience playing in the Inter-zonals in Yugoslavia in 1987. It was an eye-opener for me, a category 12 event, and I had played only category 7 and 8 tournaments before. I beat one of my idols, former World champion Mikhail Tal, in that championship.''

He has pleasant memories about the 1987 Asian team championship at Dubai. ``We won the silver, as Anand and I played on the lower boards. It was a master stroke of our non-playing captain, Mr. Verma, a retired IG, who wanted us to score maximum points on our boards, while Ravikumar and Vaidya, who were solid players, would defend stoutly on the top boards,'' he recalls.

He has seen the amazing progress of Viswanathan Anand, who revolutionised chess in India, from close quarters. ``Even from a young age, I knew he was talented. The most astonishing thing about him is his astounding memory which I haven't seen in anybody.''

Prasad now takes a book and flips through the pages. ``If Anand takes some sheets of paper like this, and just scans these games before putting them back some time later, he would remember everything including the name of the player, the place the game was played, everything. I have never seen such an astounding memory in anybody.''

He made his first, and so far the only, Grandmaster (GM) norm from the Sakthi GM tournament in Chennai in 1996. It is his greatest regret that he has not been able to get the remaining two norms and complete the GM title. ``I came close to getting the norm on quite a few occasions in the past, but somehow faltered in the final rounds,'' he rues. ``Getting the GM title is indeed my aim right now, and then to have a rating around 2500 and maintain it.''

P. K. AJITH KUMAR

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