Chess (#1223)
 "Chess (#1223)")
The national Juniors recently concluded at Rajahmundry (AP). Previous winners include Viswanathan Anand, Pentalya Harikrishna and Aravindh Chithambaram. This edition was won by Kumar Gaurav of Araria (Bihar). Gaurav is 14 years old and untitled and started as seed #42 in the under-20 tournament with multiple titled players . He's gaining 220 Elo and has one IM norm. Third place went to 11-year old Raunak Sadhwani, who's also worth watching. The girls' section was won by WIM R. Vaishali.
Gaurav comes from a very disadvantaged background. He travels unreserved on trains and his father mortgaged their land to raise money to further his career. Let's hope the lad's talent carves a way out of grinding poverty, as it did for the Queen of Katwe.
Incidentally, the fuss about the 2017 Women's World Championship in Iran has so far, focussed on an emotive but practically irrelevant issue. Women in Iran have to keep their hair covered in public. This doesn't really affect chess skills.
The other issue women participants have a problem with, is far more important. In many ways, women in Iran live less restricted lives than in other Islamic nations. It is normal to see unaccompanied women drivers and women run their own businesses and work as professionals.
But women in Iran are not allowed to be alone with any man who is not a close relative, or spouse. This severely impacts coaching and training which is generally conducted secretively behind closed doors for obvious reasons. There are ways of getting around this, using Skype (while sitting in adjoining rooms!) but it would be a major bother for players to change normal practice at a big event.
In other news, large Indian contingents are playing the Chigorin Memorial (St Petersburg) and Hoogeveen (Netherlands). Next week, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura play a big online blitz match at chess.com and after that, it'll all eyes on the title match at New York, which practically coincides with US elections.
The world's best coach, Mark Dvoretsky, passed away recently. He was 68. Dvoretsky worked with practically everybody in world chess and wrote a series of superb manuals ( some in collaboration with Artur Yusupov) and developed fantastic training methods. He was "only an IM" in terms of titles but a strong GM in practical strength since he qualified for the USSR absolute championships.
The Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY, (White: Thomas Beerdsen Vs Black: Abhijeet Gupta, Hoogeveen 2016) leads to a quick finish. Gupta took just seven seconds to play 27...Qxf3! 28.Qxf3 dxc3 29.Ba3 c2 30.Re1 Nb3 - This needs some calculation - maybe 30. Rfd8 is easier. The game ended 31.Qb7 c1=Q 32.Bxc1 Rxc1 33.Rxc1 Nxc1 34.Qb1 Ne2+ 35.Kf1 Nf4 36.g3 Ra8 (0-1). The threat is Ra1.
Gaurav comes from a very disadvantaged background. He travels unreserved on trains and his father mortgaged their land to raise money to further his career. Let's hope the lad's talent carves a way out of grinding poverty, as it did for the Queen of Katwe.
Incidentally, the fuss about the 2017 Women's World Championship in Iran has so far, focussed on an emotive but practically irrelevant issue. Women in Iran have to keep their hair covered in public. This doesn't really affect chess skills.
The other issue women participants have a problem with, is far more important. In many ways, women in Iran live less restricted lives than in other Islamic nations. It is normal to see unaccompanied women drivers and women run their own businesses and work as professionals.
But women in Iran are not allowed to be alone with any man who is not a close relative, or spouse. This severely impacts coaching and training which is generally conducted secretively behind closed doors for obvious reasons. There are ways of getting around this, using Skype (while sitting in adjoining rooms!) but it would be a major bother for players to change normal practice at a big event.
In other news, large Indian contingents are playing the Chigorin Memorial (St Petersburg) and Hoogeveen (Netherlands). Next week, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura play a big online blitz match at chess.com and after that, it'll all eyes on the title match at New York, which practically coincides with US elections.
The world's best coach, Mark Dvoretsky, passed away recently. He was 68. Dvoretsky worked with practically everybody in world chess and wrote a series of superb manuals ( some in collaboration with Artur Yusupov) and developed fantastic training methods. He was "only an IM" in terms of titles but a strong GM in practical strength since he qualified for the USSR absolute championships.
The Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY, (White: Thomas Beerdsen Vs Black: Abhijeet Gupta, Hoogeveen 2016) leads to a quick finish. Gupta took just seven seconds to play 27...Qxf3! 28.Qxf3 dxc3 29.Ba3 c2 30.Re1 Nb3 - This needs some calculation - maybe 30. Rfd8 is easier. The game ended 31.Qb7 c1=Q 32.Bxc1 Rxc1 33.Rxc1 Nxc1 34.Qb1 Ne2+ 35.Kf1 Nf4 36.g3 Ra8 (0-1). The threat is Ra1.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
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First Published: Oct 22 2016 | 12:15 AM IST