Saturday, Jun 07, 2003
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Chess
By P. K. Ajith Kumar
Until two years ago there were two international competitions India always used to make its presence strongly felt in: the beauty pageants and age-group chess championships. Our beauties may no longer be bringing home the tiaras, but our little champions in the brain game are still among the very best in the world. They have been proving this every year ever since Pendyala Harikrishna won the World under-10 championship in 1996. These kids get another opportunity to prove their supremacy, that too right at home, as the Asian youth chess championships get underway at Hotel Asma Tower here on Saturday. There are 18 medals at stake, and the host should gobble up most of them. There would be separate competitions for boys and girls in the under-14, 12 and 10 age groups. In the last edition in Teheran, India won 10 medals, including four gold. A year before that, when India last hosted this tourney, at Bikaner, it swept 11 of the 18 medals. It would be in the under-14 events that would witness the best action over the week. The competition would be close in both the boys' and girls' sections. "This is a very strong tournament," said Abhijeet Gupta, the third seed in that category in the boys' section. "There are many players from India who are capable of winning the title, and there's at least one player from abroad who can push us behind." He was referring to Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, a prodigy from Vietnam. He is greatly respected by his contemporaries in India. His rating of 2440 itself suggests that he is a special talent. He won the under-12 title in the Asian event last year. G. Rohit, the silver medallist at the last World under-14 championship, is seeded second. The Andhra lad is in good form too, having scored his maiden International Master norm from the Commonwealth championship in Mumbai in April. There are more prominent Indian names in this category, like D. Sai Srinivas, the silver medallist in the under-12 section in Iran, Rahul Sangma, one of the few players sponsored by Wipro, G.N. Gopal, the Kerala lad who surprised many by coming third in the National sub-junior championship a week ago, the under-14 National champion T.U. Naveen Kanna, and K. Vijay Keerthy, the under-12 bronze medallist in Teheran. The Indians should also dominate the girls' under-14 event. Mary Ann Gomes leads the host's challenge and it was good to see her smiling again at the inaugural function this evening. The last time one saw her, less than 24 hours ago, she was weeping inconsolably, at the closing ceremony of the National women's `B' championship. She had lost her favourite purse--given to her by her sister--and her search had become futile. Mary, as sweet and innocent a girl as any of her age, had also wept after winning the National sub-junior title here a week ago, because she had to beat her good friend and roommate Soumya Swaminathan (who's also a medal contender in this event) in the final round. "I've recovered from the loss of my purse," she smiled, "and am looking forward to this tournament, which is very, very strong." For many girls like Mary this is the third straight tournament--with a gap of just a day between the events--they are playing here. "Maybe I should've skipped the women's `B'," said N. Raghavi from Chennai, who's determined to fight hard for the under-14 title. Saheli Nath, who only on Thursday qualified for her maiden National women's `A', V.K. Sindhu and M. Rajadarshini are some of the other Indian girls to watch out for in this section. Notable Indian names in the other sections include I. Ramya Krishna and Dhyani Dave, P.K. Jayashree, Pragna Patvi (girls' under-12), Y. Sandeep and Yuzvendra Chahel (boys' under-12), Parimarjan Negi, Ravi Teja, N. Srinath and Sahaj Grover boys' under-10) and Gundala Madanasri (girls' under-12) and Lakshmi Sahithi. Over 150 players from nine countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Singapore, Mangolia, Iran, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, will take part in the tourney, which concludes on June 13. Nine Swiss rounds will be played. More than 100 players from India are competing. Over 80 of them are playing as special entries by paying a fee of Rs. 15,000. "We in fact had to restrict the entries," said the All India Chess Federation secretary P.T. Ummer Koya. "It shows how enthusiastic our children and their parents are about chess." The championship was inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Defence and Parliamentary Affairs O. Rajagopal, who reminded the audience that chess had originated in India and that it was a good exercise for the grey cells.
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