It’s the coastal belt that has produced most of the national chess champs from the State. Therefore it is but natural that many children are keen to take up chess at a very young age. The lack of quality training in the nearby districts has added pressure on the coastal belt, which has become the most sought-after destination for chess training.
Professional training
Prasanna, an administrator in Derik’s Chess School, says that awareness about the game of chess is good. Earlier only high school students sought regular training, but in the past ten years, even 11-year-olds are interested. “It has also become important to hold training camps during holidays to help the chess players who cannot make it to regular training, especially students from rural areas such as Bantwal, Moodbidri and Ujire,” he said.
Honing skills
Vidisha, a student of Std II, SVS, Bantwal said that the Dasara Special Training Camp at Derik’s School was her initiation into professional training. I love playing more than solving problems. “During the training camp a closed tournament with about 20 players in the age group of nine to early 20s with quite a few FIDE-rated players was held that gave us a feel of how a professional game is played,” she said.
“We saw that learning ability differs according to age and thus an exclusive training camp for children below seven years of age was conceived, says Prasanna and adds that if trained young, they slowly dominate the scene in various age groups as amassing experience counts, for a lot in the game. Prasanna says that during the camp about four closed tournaments and a virtual tournament for freshers too will be held. Moreover, a lot of national level, state-level and zonal-level tournaments are coming up and the camp will provide the children an opportunity for rigorous practice. Adith Jagadish, a student of Std X, Lourdes Central School, one of the team members who won the CBSE national championship for the under-14 in 2007 and who has now got into the game after six months said that such training camps help sharpen our skills. “I have resumed practice to compete in the CBSE south zone championship with an eye on the national championship, this time around in the under-17 category,” he says.
