Old guard still raring to take on generation-next

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

TIRUR, SEPT. 24. There may be a silver lining or two in their hair. They may not look as fit as Hrithik Roshan. But make no mistake, the golden oldies of Indian chess are no sitting ducks to a younger, smarter generation.

Close on the heels of GM Dibyendu Barua winning the National `A' chess championship and IM D.V. Prasad making his second GM norm at Dortmund, IM Lanka Ravi has proved that age is no bar to excel in chess and that the players of his generation are no pushovers. He did this by winning the eighth National rapid championship here on Saturday.

Barua, 32, had said that his third National `A' championship meant much more to him than the previous ones because the competition had become tougher and the game was getting younger. He was right. Look at the way Pendyala Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy have dominated the headlines of late.

Prasad, 39, sounded equally elated, when this writer spoke to him over telephone, after coming up with a splendid display at Dortmund, where he could have even possibly won the title if he had given some attention to the playing schedule and hadn't overslept (which resulted in losing a very crucial one point). ``It feels really great to be able to come up with such performances at this stage of my career,'' he had said.

Ravi, a contemporary of Prasad, was also happy to win a strong tournament in which he was one of the older participants. It was also a tournament which required a lot of energy, mental and physical, as there were nine rounds squeezed into three days. And he remained unbeaten at the end of it all. A remarkable effort. Like Prasad, Ravi is also determined to strive hard and fulfill the dream of every serious chess player: the Grandmaster title.

``I am confident that I have the ability to be a GM. Now, after winning this National championship, I am more determined than ever,'' he said. Last month he had finished fourth in the Commonwealth championship in London, as he showed signs of regaining the kind of form that had taken him to the Indian team for the Olympiads on two occasions, in 1986 and 1992.

Prasad is a veteran of seven Olympiads and he had taken a calculated risk when he opted to go to Europe in search of his final norm, rather than playing in the National `B championship at Nagpur. The Indian team for the next Olympiad, to be held in Slovenia next year, would be picked from the National `A' next year, and for which Prasad had to qualify from the National `B'.

But he thought he could get a direct entry to the National `A' if he became a GM (the GMs are directly seeded to the tourney). It is such confidence that sets older players like him apart.

Barua, the only Indian to win gold at the Olympiad, continues to be one of the very best in the country, years after he emerged as the original wonderkid of Indian chess. Recently he qualified for the World championship, to be held in Moscow from November 24, from the Asian championship in Kolkata, which was the second strongest event ever held in the country.

The achievements of these men are all the more remarkable because they played the best chess of their life when the game was nothing more than a hobby in India, when there was no Vishwanathan Anand, when there was very little information, when there was no coaching, when they had to spend a lot of their energy to get Governments clear their foreign trips.

Next year, IM Varughese Koshy will be making a return to the National `A' after a gap of two years, having qualified from the National `B' at Nagpur recently. He will be 43 then. But the Harikrishnas, Kuntes and Sasikirans are not going to take him lightly. They better not.

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