Chess: A great year for India, Sochi notwithstanding
P. K. AJITH KUMAR
It was the year that saw the young king keep his crown and the queen make her last move.
Magnus Carlsen retaining the World championship, at the expense of Viswananthan Anand in Sochi, was widely expected, but the incredible Judit Polgar’s retirement from competitive chess wasn’t. The World title match in Russia was very much the showpiece event of what was quite an eventful year.Exciting contest
The match between the young Norwegian and the not-so-young Indian produced some exciting stuff, too. Unlike the Carlsen-Anand Part I in Chennai, the Sochi affair was pretty close.
It was very much alive till the penultimate game, in which Anand stretched himself or, in his own words, took a bad gamble and was punished.
As for Carlsen, he could keep the World title in classical, rapid and blitz at the same time; that is a bit like being the No.1 in Tests, while holding the One-Day and Twenty20 World Cups. Anand may have failed in his bid for a sixth World title, but he still had a rather good year, which he capped off by winning the London Chess Classic.
He had also won the Bilbao Masters, and before that, the Candidates tournament at Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia), where he played fabulously to triumph in a strong field and thus earn the right to challenge Carlsen. The year saw the legend of Anand continue.Dominant for 25 years
Another legend, Polgar, decided, at the age of 38, to move on though, away from the chessboard, which she dominated for more than two decades like no lady ever did. The pretty woman from Hungary was the World No. 1 for 25 years in a row. But she reigned without a crown though, as she competed only with men; she never played in the women’s World championship. Women weren’t good enough for her.
She was once ranked No. 8 among men. She reached there by bruising many a male ego; her victims included World champions Anand, Carlsen Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Veselin Topalov.
India may have been disappointed by Anand’s defeat in Sochi, but it still was one of the greatest years ever for the country in the mind sport.
History was made at the Chess Olympiad in Tromso (Norway), where India won the men’s bronze. Nearly 180 countries had competed in the chess equivalent of Davis Cup.Remarkable feat
It was the first ever team medal for India in the Olympiad, whose history dates back to 1924. It was a truly remarkable feat, as the 19th-seeded India was playing without its top two players Anand and P. Harikrishna.
Krishnan Sasikiran was the star performer and he picked up an individual silver medal as well. To make the event even more unforgettable for India, Padmini Rout won the individual gold in the women’s event.
If India’s success in the Olympiad was a surprise, the triumph of the Youth Olympiad wasn’t. The top seed retained the crown in Hungary to ensure that the year ended on the right note.
India has been the dominant force in the World Youth championship as well. There were six medals for the country at this year’s tournament in Durban, where India added to its long list of World champions in age-group chess, through Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh, both in the Under-10 category.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com
Well done.