Tuesday, Aug 20, 2002
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Chess
By Our Special Correspondent
National sub-junior champion Somak Palit, Deep Sengupta, G. Rohit and Abhijeet Gupta are the other members of the team, accompanied by Mr. S. Vijaya Sarathy, as coach. Though the players did not know much about the field in Kuala Lumpur, Deepan expected India to be seeded seventh or eighth. "We expect Russia, China, Ukraine and Uzbekistan to be seeded above us,'' said the stocky 16-year-old who claimed the Asian under-20 title in Colombo recently and with it, the title of International Master and a nine-game Grandmaster norm. Supported by Wipro, Deepan is expected to play on the top board, followed by Deep Sengupta, Palit and Rohit. Abhijeet, the baby of the team, will be on the reserve board. This young brigade, chosen on the basis of their rating in the latest list released in July, promises to pull of a surprise or two. Palit, whose rating of 2310 matches with that of Deepan, had coaching stints under Evgeny Vladimirov as well as under Maxim Sorokin in recent times. Deepan and Rohit, too, have benefitted from the coaching camp conducted by Vladimirov. Part of the Goodricke Chess Academy in Kolkata, Palit had hit the headlines last February by making his maiden International Master in great style in the Asian Open in Bikaner this year. Among his victims was Dibyendu Barua, the Grandmaster who went wrong in the opening and could not find his way back into the match. Deep Sengupta, who hails from Chakradharpur in Jharkhand and seeks patronage from Tata Steel, was the World under-12 champion in 2000. Currently, he is the senior champion of the newly-formed State. More recently, he won an under-16 title in Dubai and collected his career-high prize-money of $2,000. Rohit, the reigning National under-14 champion sponsored by Hero Honda, is among the band of youngsters, from Andhra Pradesh, who have thronged the National age-group scene for a while now. He made it to the Olympaid team at the expense of Sayantan Dutta, whom he overtook in the rating list. At the Asian level, Rohit has two silver and an equal number of bronze medals to show. Recently, Rohit claimed his first open title by winning the inaugural `Immortal Five' championship at Vijayawada. Abhijeet, one of the most consistent performers at the Asian age-group level since 1999, has won under-12 gold medals in the Asian, Commonwealth as well as the British championships. Truly creditable was his silver-medal finish in the Asian under-18 at Bikaner in February. This Bhilwara-lad was second only to Grandmaster P. Hari Krishna after norrowly missing his maiden International Master norm. Interestingly, he has never played in a team championship. Therefore, the outing in this Olympiad is sure to be a good learning experience for him. Though each player has achievements to show in their age-groups, it will be interesting to watch how they cope up with the demands of playing as a team. Without doubt, the players, except Abhijeet, have gained a lot from the preparatory camps under the foreign coaches engaged by the All India Chess Federation. However, it could have been much better had federation chosen a more illustrious and accomplished coach, preferably an International Master who has played in the Olympiad. These players could have gained a lot, besides confidence, only if their coach was well versed with the pressures of playing in a premier team championship. After all, the Youth Olympiad is one big opportunity for the chosen players to represent the country — as a team.
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