The Hindu : National Youth tourney from today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

National Youth tourney from today

By D. Ravi Shankar

BANGALORE July 16. Chess Players have a particular air about them. Some would even consider them to be eccentric. Their brows are furrowed deep in thought, topics of discussion invariably centre around the game and opening moves, middle games and end plays are discussed threadbare. Moves and counter moves are reviewed with each one's opinion being exchanged freely. Some chess players even have the ability to play the game without a chess board — blindfold chess as it is called, keeping track of the moves in memory. All in all it is an excerise in displaying the infinite capacity of the brain.

The State Youth Centre here will have many of the country's top chess players engaged in mental combat. Starting on July 17, the 11th National Youth (under-25) chess championship sponsored by Adarsh Group will have players like Neelotpal Das (elo rating 2368), Saptharishi Roy Choudary (2316), Pankaj Joshi (2313) and Prathamesh Mokal (2340) along with Kruthika Nadig and Vinuthana leading the challenge from the distaff side, poring over the black and white chequered board and moving their armies with the sole intent of trapping their rival's king. One costly lapse in thinking by a player and experts watching will be able to predict in how many moves the game would end. The nine round tournament ends on July 25.

The under-25 tournament in one sense is less glittering tournament on the National Calender. While winners and runners-up in the other age group tournaments (under-12, under-14) get a chance to play at the international and Asian rounds respectively, the under-25 gives no such boost for the top two players. Apart from the prize money, it is the chance of adding a national title to one's trophy case which motivates players to compete. Also it is a tournament where those fringe players who have missed out on their age group titles to score. So the field here is a mixture of some good players and some upcoming players.

For chess players in Karnataka the under-25 national tournament is a rare opportunity for unrated players to play and beat rated players and thus earn a rating for themselves. Karnataka's M.S Thej Kumar from Mysore and Jonathan Utharid are the qualifiers while Sunil Rangarajan, Vijay Keerthi (under-12 champion and Asian medallist) Sriram Sarja (from Konandur in rural Karnataka) and Jagadish from Mysore are also to be seen in action.

Youngsters who could cause upsets are P.P. Prachura a 10-year old who fared well in the British championship last year and the Asian tournament at Teheran, Akshay Raj Kore an under-14 rapid chess champion and G.N. Gopal (Kerala, under-12 rapid champion). Last edition's winner Sathyapragian and Tamil Nadu's Deepan Chakravarthy will be the notable absentees.

The tournament will be played under FIDE Swiss Rules. The first 40 moves have to be completed in 90 minutes and the rest of the moves to be completed in 30 minutes. The eventual winner of the tournament takes home a cash prize of Rs. 11,000 and a trophy. The runner-up receives Rs. 6,500 and the third placed receives Rs. 4,500, Players are rewarded up to the 24th position and the total cash prize amounts to Rs. 40,000.

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