The Hindu : A day to remember for Deepan & Tania

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 06, 2002

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Sport - Chess

A day to remember for Deepan & Tania

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

Tania Sachdev, who won the girls' title in the Asian junior (under-20) chess championship on Friday. — Photos: R.V. Moorthy

KOZHIKODE JULY 5. Marawila is a little, unpretentious town in Sri Lanka, meaning little to the outside world. But for two teenaged Indians, it would always be very special. For, Deepan Chakravarthy and Tania Sachdev recorded their finest moments in their young career at Club Palm Bay in Marawila on Friday, when they were crowned the new Asian junior chess champions.

For Tania, who will celebrate her 16th birthday on August 20, this title surely couldn't have come at a better time. She has not quite been able to do justice to her undoubted talent, ever since her sensational performance at the British championship in 1994. The tiny eight-year-old girl had won five titles in the famous tournament, even coming first in the boys' competition.

She was hailed as a prodigy at that time, and one recalls the small girl cornering all the attention at the National women's `B' championship, held at Kalpetta in Kerala eight years ago. She didn't do anything spectacular in that tournament; she really wasn't expected to, for it was an event meant for grown up women.

But expectations were still high about the little wonder. Except for a couple of fine shows at age-group events, success in an important tournament continued to elude Tania for a long time.

But last year she won the bronze at the Asian junior championship in Teheran. Then she came runner-up at the National women's `B' championship at Visakhapatnam, and qualified for the National women's `A'.

And at the women's `A' at Lucknow, she didn't do too badly on her debut, though she failed to make it to the senior Indian team (the top six select themselves for the National squad for international tournaments).

However, it is this triumph in Lanka that is going to be a turning point in her career. There's nothing quite like success. Especially when it comes after many disappointments.

Most importantly, she could now start believing that she has the ability to win significant tournaments and that she could play consistently well for 11 or more rounds, if she really wants to.

Tania's victory is remarkable because the city she lives in, New Delhi, is not exactly known as the chess capital of India. Life, in fact, is not easy for a chess player in Delhi. The city boasts of just one International Master (Sriram Jha); of course now it has an International Woman Master in Tania.

One recalls her mother Anju, the driving force behind her career, complaining of the limited opportunities a chess player gets in the capital.

"You know we have to come down South all the time for tournaments,'' she had said during the National men's `B' championship at Kozhikode in 1997. Things have improved a lot since, as many cities in Northern India are hosting major events these days.

Tania, sponsored by Hughes Software Systems and coached mainly by G.B. Joshi, certainly has the potential to achieve greater things, says Evgeny Vladimirov, a former trainer of Garry Kasparov.

The Kazhakstan Grandmaster (GM), who coached Tania here before she left for Lanka, was delighted to hear that she had won the title. "That is a direct result of my coaching I guess,'' he said, laughing.

"She is a very promising player. Unlike most players of her age, she knows how to handle her pieces. She already has a good positional understanding.''

Like Tania, Deepan Chakravarthy also has benefited from coaching sessions with a reputed foreign trainer.

He had attended a training session with GM Maxim Sorokin in Bangalore recently (and he had worked with the Argentine coach here in another session some six months ago).

Again like Tania, Deepan also comes from a place that doesn't churn out chess champions on a daily basis. Madurai is no Chennai when it comes to this mind sport (though M. Kasturi, who won the Asian junior girls' title last year, also belongs to the same town).

Deepan, who turned 15 on June 3, is one of the fastest improving young players in the country at the moment. He has good tactical skills that have often surprised stronger rivals.

Says K. Ratnakaran, the bronze medallist at last year's Asian junior championship, "I was really impressed by the way he beat Marat Dzhumaev at the Chief Minister's tournament in Raipur. The GM was absolutely crushed by Deepan. Marat's pieces, including the queen, were totally on the defensive.''

Deepan had made his maiden IM norm from that tourney, back in March. And he made another norm at Marawila, but all that doesn't matter now, as the Continental champion is awarded a direct title by FIDE, the world chess governing body.

Deepan Chakkravarty, who won the boys' title.

Deepan is a true product of the age-group system, the biggest contribution of the All India Chess Federation (AICF) to the rapid development of Indian chess.

A young player can play in many National tournaments these days, unlike his counterpart a few years ago, when there was just the National junior or the sub-junior tournament to look forward to.

There are even National championships in rapid chess for the children. Deepan won one of them -- the National under-14 rapid here three years ago.

He is also a bronze medal winner of the Commonwealth under-14 championship. But it was when he won the Cusat all-India Open tournament at Kochi in 2000 as a 13-year-old that people really started to take him seriously.

"It was a fairly strong tournament, and Deepan's performance was quite commendable, more so when you consider his age,'' recalls Ratnakaran.

Age is certainly on Deepan's side, and on Tania's. Indian chess could certainly hope for more from them.

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