To wake up one day and discover that one is gifted in a particular vocation is a rather improbable idea, in which one cannot repose a lot of confidence. More so in a sport like chess which kids take to as soon as their motor coordination skills have developed sufficiently to pick up and drag chess men across a few squares, without wetting themselves. The current World number one on FIDE's ratings list Magnus Carlsen, is not out of his teens yet.
So when Adhiban Bhaskaran, National Champion and the country's 23rd and latest Grand Master, says he started in earnest when he was a superannuated eight, it only adds to what he has gone on to do since then.
“I started playing when I was eight. I knew the basics a little earlier than that though. My parents have not played the sport at any professional level,” he says of his grounding in the game. It was his mom who initiated him into the sport, a similarity he shares with World Champion Viswanathan Anand.
Impressive decade
The late start notwithstanding, Adhiban has had an impressive decade in the game. The youngest to win a National ‘B' title in 2007 at 16, Adhiban is also the second youngest Grand Master from the state, after, of course, Anand. He was crowned the World Under-16 champion in 2008, in Vietnam.
“Yeah, I started a bit late, but I've always had the feeling I could compensate. It is good if you start early, but it certainly is not a disadvantage starting late. After all, it is how much you learn that matters, not when you start,” he says.
The three norms required for the title of Grand Master might have come about a lot earlier, he admits.
“I have had several close misses with the GM norms (three of which are required for the GM title). In 2009, I needed a draw to get a norm in the penultimate round of the tournament and I lost the match. In the next round, I had to win to get it, and I lost the game going for the win. It happened once in 2008 as well,” he says, with a smile.
When the last norm did materialise, it came in spectacular fashion. Adhiban ended the Oloumac Open in the Czech Republic with a strong run, tallying four-and-a-half points from the final five rounds to gift himself the title and the final GM norm three days short of his eighteenth birthday.
Two of his three norms though have come from tournaments within the country — he earned his first norm at the Premier National Championship (Mumbai) and the second at the SCS GM tournament (Bhubaneshwar). The proliferation of tournaments with strong fields within the country and tightly contested age-group tournaments have been indicators of the robust health of the game in India.
“Even when I have to travel abroad, the government pays for it and my sponsor, Indian Oil Corporation, helps as well,” he says.
The next stop for the Chennai-ite will be the Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk, this September-October. Adhiban will feature, in the capacity of National Champion, in a team that comprises Krishnan Sasikiran, P. Harikrishna, S.S. Ganguly and G.N. Gopal — the four top-rated players in the country.
The latest FIDE list has Adhiban pegged at 2515 rating points, something he will surpass. “It would be good to reach the 2600 mark, that's the next target,” he says.
