The Hindu : Timely title for Ramesh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 12, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Timely title for Ramesh

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI AUG. 11. Given the sweet taste of success, what makes it better, at times, is the timing of the triumph. For R. B. Ramesh and Koneru Humpy, the British chess titles could not have come at a more opportune time.

Ramesh had not won any major title outside the country since 1995 while Humpy's actual playing strength was being doubted in the chess fraternity of the country. If Ramesh was seen as someone who was ''good, but not quite good enough,'' Humpy was mocked at as a grossly ''over-rated'' player, even by some of the better-known names of Indian chess.

Ramesh, who took to chess at 11, produced stunning results to become an International Master at 19! What followed was a phase where success eluded him and he actually had reasons to believe that his game was becoming stagnant. But all along, Ramesh continued to work very hard on his game. He won the National rapid title and remained in the top-10 list of the country, but could not make the National team as often as one expected him to.

Once, Ramesh's lack of title-winning ability made one of the chess officials remark that he did not have ''fighting spirit.'' Needless to stress, this sweeping assessment of Ramesh was way off the mark.

Only this year, in the National `A', Ramesh bounced back from suffering four defeats in the first eight rounds to make the Indian team in a stunning manner. He scored 3.5 points from the last four rounds to take the sixth spot. Ramesh also did well in the Asian Open at Bikaner, but his efforts were overshadowed by K. Sasikiran's title-sweeping streak.

But Ramesh's late winning streak on way to the British title is going to be remembered for long. He won the last four rounds to beat the field by half-a-point! In the process, he gained his second Grandmaster norm, too. This 11-game GM-norm follows his maiden nine-game norm attained in the Biel Open in Switzerland last year.

Ramesh, seeded 26 in a very tough field, was never under any pressure to deliver. But once Ramesh came into contention for the 10,000-pound first prize, he gave nothing away. Pressure or no pressure.

As the Ramesh-led Indian brigade occupied eight of the top 14 slots in the British championship, Humpy had the satisfaction of regaining the title won in 2000. That year, Humpy became the youngest ever women's champion in this annual event. But this time, the title was more meaningful for a different reason. In the presence of the all the leading ladies of the country, Humpy proved herself. That too, in a mixed field.

However, unlike Ramesh, Humpy was under pressure. For long, even as the less-informed media persons were busy finding new superlatives to describe Humpy's capabilities, the chess players argued that this teenager was yet to prove herself in a worthy field. Though none could take anything away from Humpy's brilliant triumph in the World junior championship last year, many players, including some from her native state Andhra Pradesh, doubted her GM-norms.

``Let Humpy show her strength in a field where the top Indians are also playing,'' some players had said emphatically. Now, Humpy has proved herself by coming up with, what should be considered as, most notable performance ever.

In the field of 94 players, headed by Sasikiran with a rating of 2650, Humpy was seeded 20th. With the cream of Indian men and women players in the fray, it was just the right stage of Humpy to prove to her compatriots that she was really not as bad as some of them took her to be.

A closer look at Humpy's tally of seven points reveals that she may have scored three victories over far lesser rated rivals but she posted a big one against GM Mark Hebden, with an Elo rating of 2534. Not just that. She drew with Sasikiran, P. Hari Krishna and Sandipan Chanda. Without uttering a word, Humpy made a telling statement to the chess fraternity at home that she her abilities should no longer be doubted.

Overall, Humpy was placed 12th, after sharing the ninth spot with eight others including, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Hari and Chanda.

Until this creditable performance, the leading male players of the country had reasons to believe that six-time National champion S. Vijayalakshmi was the strongest among the country's women players, though Humpy remained highest rated. But now, some were sure to revise their opinion. After all, while Humpy collected seven points against stronger opposition, S. Meenakshi, Aarthie Ramaswamy, Bhagyashree Thipsay and Vijayalakshmi scored 5.5 points to finish in that order between the 48th and the 53rd slot. Saheli Dhar-Barua aggregated 4.5 and finished 69th while Swati Ghate garnered four points to end up 83rd !

Besides India capturing the men and women titles, there were more gains from the age-group sections. C. M. Gauri Shankar claimed the under-9 and under-10 titles besides jointly taking the under-11 crown.

Delhi's six-and-a-half-year-old Sahaj Grover claimed silver medals in the under-8 and under-10 sections. Coached by Gurpreet Pal Singh and G. B. Joshi, Sahaj lived up to the faith shown in him by his school, Kulachi Hans Raj, which funded his trip.

So, India's recent streak of success on British soil continues. The Natwest one-day trophy, a bagful of medals in the Manchester Commonwealth Games and now the glorious run of our chess players. What next?

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