Of the magnificent five

SURYA SHEKHAR GANGULY and Pendyala Harikrishna had a great time in New Delhi last winter. The teenaged International Masters got to see the cream of world chess, including their idols, in flesh and blood, watching from close quarters those great minds at work.

The World championship is always a special occasion and the two youngsters were keen not to miss any of the action at Hotel Hyatt Regency. But the best thing was that there was no pressure of being a player. If Ganguly had the pretext of being a `second' - a chess jargon meaning `not quite a coach, but much more than a sparring partner' - to Dibyendu Barua, Harikrishna, only 14 at the time, was in Delhi just as a spectator, and boy, didn't he enjoy it?

The duo would also be there at this year's World chess championship. But their smiles and jovial walks up and down the stairs of Hyatt will be replaced by frowns and stares at the chessboards. They would be making their debut in the world's most prestigious event in chess.

And they have the company of three other Indians. The fabulous five India is fielding is another reminder to the rest of the world that the country is surely on its way to become a superpower in chess.

This is India's strongest ever contingent at a World chess championship, led by the World champion himself. There were four Indian men in Delhi alright, but two of those berths were not won, but presented to the host. This year, though, each of the five players has made it completely on his own.

Viswanathan Anand, the most popular World champion ever, is there as the defending champion (or as the World No. 3). Krishnan Sasikiran, the country's best player after Anand, booked his berth after winning the Asian Zonal championship in Colombo in May. Then last Friday, Barua, Ganguly and Harikrishna made it to the elite 100 of the World championship by qualifying from the Asian championship in Kolkata.

Anand would indeed be the man to beat in the coming World championship. For those of you who would point at his disastrous show in Dortmund recently (when he finished sixth in a field of six), you should also remember that it came after a year of outstanding performances, in all kinds of formats and styles: classical and rapid and Swiss league and knock-out. And a few weeks ago in the battle of two World champions, the official and the unofficial one, Anand prevailed over Vladimir Kramnik in the Mainz Chess Classic of rapid chess.

For the ever-beleaguered Indian sports fan, Anand gave a night to remember on December 24 last year. A country of one billion finally got a World champion of its own in a truly global and competitive sport. In Teheran, when Anand crushed Alexei Shirov of Spain in the stunningly one- sided final (the Indian needed just four games out of the available six to settle the issue, with three straight wins), it was the finest moment in Indian sport's history. It was also a lot more.

The genial genius from Chennai - one would suspect he is courteous even to a computer - became the first non-White to win the World chess championship (remember that the World chess champion has always been considered one of the most intelligent men on earth, and also remember Adolf Hitler). It was also the first time someone from outside the erstwhile Soviet Union won the title since American Bobby Fischer's historic victory in 1972.

Of course he is also the first Asian to win the ultimate crown in chess. Interestingly, a few days before Anand's Persian conquest, China's Xie Jun had won her fourth women's World championship. ``Wouldn't it be great if Anand too wins in Teheran? It would be a grand double for Asia,'' she had said in Delhi.

It was not the charming Xie Jun alone though who wanted Anand to win: his supporters range from 21-year-old Isabel Werner of Germany - a musician, great beauty and International Woman Master of chess - to 39- year-old Maia Chiburdanidze from Russia, who became the World champion at the age of 17. ``I just love him. He is like a diamond. He has everything - talent, ambition and all other attributes of a champion,'' affable Maia had said, excited at the very mention of Anand during an interview in Delhi.

But Anand lacked one attribute of a champion, some of his critics used to argue: arrogance. Even they would now admit that he has more than made up for it with his sheer brilliance.

It was this brilliance alone that Anand took to the top of the world, not any chess school or coach like Mikhail Botvinnik (himself a World champion, he trained Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Kramnik, all champions). Anand is a natural chess player.

He can think quicker than anybody else in this world and has a memory as good as anyone. He is easily the greatest sportsman his country produced, though in his sport there were no world beaters before him.

Before Delhi/Teheran - and what a performance it was, twenty games without a loss - too Anand had come close to the World title on a couple of occasions. In 1995 he had lost to a supremely confident Kasparov in the PCA World title final in New York and in 1998 in Lausanne he was undone by an unfair system which seemed bent on making Anatoly Karpov the World champion when he was well past his prime.

But the amazingly articulate 32-year-old - he can speak as well as most of us write - put all that behind with four unforgettable weeks last winter. And don't forget, he is only the 16th champion (even when one includes Kramnik in the list) in the 114-year-old history of World chess championship.

But long before he had given us the World championship, Anand had done more than enough for India. He inspired a generation of youngsters to take up chess, and brought about a revolution that made India the country to watch out for in world chess.

Sasikiran is one of those young Indians who have already been noticed at the higher levels in the international arena. In the January rating list of FIDE, the World chess governing body, he was ranked 76th. He is also the first Indian to cross 2600 Elo points after Anand.

This is the second World championship for the 20-year-old. Last year he had played as a special entry of the FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. He didn't do that badly either, and by no means was an embarrassment to Kirsan. He came through the opening round with conviction, but lost his way in the second round, paying the penalty for overstretching himself against a formidable opponent like Leok Van Wely of the Netherlands.

Sasikiran has almost an un-Indian attitude when it comes to working on his game. When his contemporaries complain about the lack of tournaments, he would say for him work alone matters. He is capable of working relentlessly on his game. That is one of the reasons why many people think he has a bright future ahead.

Though he did not win even a single National tournament for five years after he started playing, he was hardly bothered. Nor was his father, S. Krishnan, who is also his coach. After an outstanding year in 2000 - he completed his GM title, won a strong GM tournament in his home town of Chennai, had another fine Olympiad - he hasn't had a particularly successful run this year so far, Colombo notwithstanding.

And he had a terrible time in Kolkata. ``I was really surprised by the way Sasikiran played,'' says Lanka Ravi, the seasoned IM based in Chennai. ``Normally you don't expect such a show from Sasi, but I guess he was a little tired.''

But Sasikiran has enough time to bounce back to top form before the World championship gets underway.

Ganguly is one player who is in awesome form right now.He is feeling on top of the world. Why shouldn't he?

Not only did the 19-year-old secure a place in the World championship, but won the bronze in what was a very, very strong field in Kolkata. He also made his maiden GM norm. And it all happened in his home town.

To come third in a tournament featuring 30 GMs is an awesome performance for a teenaged IM. Ganguly is justifiably proud of his achievement. ``I could say that I really played well in this tournament,'' he says. Yes, it is the finest moment in his career, he admits.

He did not expect it at all. ``Quite frankly, I was a bit overwhelmed looking at the list containing the name of all those GMs. I went to the tournament with no expectations,'' he says.

And he began badly. At the end of the third round he had just one point. Then came the turnaround, as he scored six points from the next seven rounds, without dropping a game. Moreover, he was playing splendid chess. And he was consistently aggressive, rather unlike his normal style.``He took me by surprise,'' says Abhijit Kunte, the amiable GM from Pune, ``I've never seen him play so well.'' Lanka Ravi also says that Ganguly was a revelation.

The boy who won a bronze medal at the World under-12 championship in Poland when he was eight looks well set to fulfil his potential. Three years later, he won silver medal at the World under-12 championships. Ganguly came of age when he won the National men's `B' championship in 1999.

Before Anand stunned Indian chess with his genius, it was Barua who was called the wunderkid. The youngest of the five children of a small- time Kolkata businessman showed unusual skills in chess from a very young age.

A completely original player, the young Barua played chess purely on instinct and talent. Not for him were the chess books and the opening theories you find in them. He did not study the game not because he was arrogant, but because his father could not afford to buy those books, which were expensive at that time.

He set a record for the youngest qualifier for the National at 12 in 1978, which still stands, and four years later he became an IM. Only after getting his IM title in 1982 did he turn to books. ``That did not help my game much though,'' he once said.

Harikrishna is the youngest.

He could also well be at the youngest of any nationality in this year's World championship. But he was not exactly jumping with joy on August 17, when he made the grade form Kolkata. He said he was disappointed that he could not complete his GM title in Kolkata itself. He required to win his last round match against Iran's Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, to stretch the nine-game norm he scored two days earlier to one of 11 games. He could get only a draw.

P. K. AJITH KUMAR

Kozhikode

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Harikrishna shocks Crouch
Next     : Murali delights with a cameo