Published Date: 12 June 2009
By Laura Cummings
A HUSH descended on the auditorium as the chess grandmasters pitted their wits against one another.
It was the 1979 Soviet Union Women’s Chess Championship, and hundreds of spectators packed the imposing Chess Palace in Tbilisi to watch it unfold.
Among them 11-year-old Keti Arakhamia, who had travelled for 12 hours from her home in Ochamchiri to see her heroes in action, was quite simply mesmerised.
The following year the child prodigy would leave home for good to start 16 years in a Soviet “hot house” training programme for talented youngsters.
Six years later, she would return to the same stage to win an international tournament herself, helping her qualify as a chess grandmaster.
It’s that moment, sitting spellbound in the audience, that Keti goes back to in her mind as she recalls the instant she first dared to dream of playing chess on the world stage.
“It made such a huge impression on me to be able to see all my heroes on stage not far from me,” says Keti, now 40, as she relaxes at her home in Corstorphine.
“I was gobsmacked. It was just an absolutely amazing feeling that I can still recall. Everyone was very motionless and quiet, but somehow there was a tension in the air.
“I didn’t really believe that I could achieve anything like these players. It would have been my dream at the time to play on that stage, but I would not even let myself dream about it in case I didn’t achieve it.”
Today, Keti is a mother-of-one, settled in the Capital having married Scotsman Jonathan Grant, and the UK’s only female international chess grandmaster. There are only 19 others around the world.
Here is the full article.
Congratulations!