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Time to translate promise to results
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"Just winning titles is not enough, what matters the most is the rating of your opponent against whom you win. Contesting a leading player is crucial, as it boosts your rating."
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HE WAS the pride of the Temple City when he brought rich accolades, winning the Asian Junior Chess Championships in Colombo in 2002. He is the first International Master from the Temple City.
For an attacking player like Deepan Chakravarthy, the12th Standard student of the Dolphin Public School, the insatiable spirit to boost the rating is more than winning district and state titles. "Just winning title is not enough, what matters the most is the rating of your opponent against whom you win. Contesting a leading player is crucial, as it boosts your rating. But you cannot deny the sense of joy you derive from each victory," says Deepan.
He started playing chess at the tender age of four. He credits his entry into chess field to his father, Jeyakumar, an advocate. Jeyakumar introduced chess to Deepan. But the sudden demise of his father came in as a rude shock for his chess career. Now, pushed into the situation of being the sole breadwinner of the family, his mother, Murugeswari, left Deepan and his two sisters under the custody of Petchiammal, her sister, for Coimbatore to set up an ornamental fish shop.
Deepan's chess future was doomed then, as he had to leave Madurai to Viruveedu near Nagamalai Pudukottai. But in a sudden turnaround, on seeing the kid's interest in chess, his aunt Petchiammal decided to switch the base from the tiny hamlet to the city for his better future.
Even then, things were not so rosy. As competing players from Chennai and other popular chess centres of India was not that easy for the stocky Deepan. But his intuitive game plan helped him get past his rivals with relative ease.
After winning the district and state titles in the age-group categories, there was no looking back. In 1998, he qualified for the Asian Youth Chess Championships in Rasht (Iran). For the young Deepan, who was competing in the under-10 category, journey to a foreign country, with no one from his family to accompany, was quite unimaginable. But he was left with no other choice, due to lack of funds. Despite all these shortcomings, he came out successful claiming the bronze.
The next year he claimed the under-12 Asian bronze medal in Ahmedabad and in 2001 he once again finished third in the Bikaner Championships, this time in the under-14 category.
Twice he had won the national titles. He claimed the rapid chess title in the under-14 category in 1998 at Calicut, and national sub-junior title in Mumbai.
But the consistency is quite elusive for him. One day he will be a Titan but on the other he will be a Lilliput. Even in the Commonwealth Chess Championship concluded recently in Mumbai, he began with a lot of promise with a couple of stunning performances, but he faltered in the third round, and collected just 5.5 points. "If I had scored seven points, I would have got a GM norm," he says.
"I am working on my consistency, for which I have been practising meditation and yoga to improve my concentration," he adds.
His forte is the middle and end game. But opening is his nemesis. Impressed by his rating of 2319, Wipro granted sponsorship for a year. Buoyed by this gesture, he improved his rating by 61 points.
Now that he has qualified for the World Chess Championship, his eyes are firmly set on winning the world title. But it is high time he translates all his promises to results
TSN
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
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