Sport - Chess

Tribal kids have potential: Anand

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, SEPT. 13. When you are in Spain, you loose touch with cricket. There is so much football around you that it starts to grow on you, said winner of the Chess Oscar for the third time, Viswanath Anand who was in town on Monday with his wife Aruna.

Anand was eloquent on various topics, from India's chances at the Chess Olympiad in Spain, tribal kids in Andhra Pradesh showing potential to become future champions, the need to set goals for oneself.

What does the Oscar mean to Anand, World No. 2 with 2782 points? "It's nowadays the `de facto' recognition a chess player gets. Because of the confusion with the world championship title, the Oscar is almost taking its place. It's voted on by chess journalists and fans, so there itself you have a select audience, it's not a popularity contest.''

Anand has spotted some talent among tribal kids of Andhra Pradesh. The NIIT Brand Ambassador said he is proud to be associated with the NIIT-Champions Academy. "Recently I met two kids from tribal villages in Hyderabad. Because of the Champions Academy they have had access to my chess manuals. They played in the inter-school events and one of them finished second. This potentially shows what kind of talent is out there. We could not have reached these kids without the fact of NIIT already having an IT education programme there. It's also worth mentioning that often playing chess will improve their academic performance. On top of that, if some of them turn out to be champions, that would be great.''

"There are the usual suspects,'' he said in jest when asked of the bright chaps in the Indian chess scene.

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