G - Loud !!!

Pic Courtesy : Chess.com

Chess, as a game, is as much royal as its pervasiveness across countries. From being invented in India to being the National game of one big country, chess is played in most parts of the world, often having some of the strongest historical legacies. The Middle East, the Soviet Union, even the USA including the Oriental world were the biggest hubs and practitioners of chess. Each of these regions has produced a world champion during one time or the other. Bobby Fischer is one name that comes to my chess mind as one of the greatest chess grand-masters. I have matured as a chess player studying a lot of his ‘immortal’ games. So does Gary Kasparov. In this modern day, my chess imagination is captured more by the prodigious Magnus Carlsen of Norway. He is possibly the youngest and the sharpest, the world is now seeing. Anand has been my nostalgic favourite always.
I have loved playing chess ever since I was a child. I am fortunate to not only play but win numerous accolades throughout my ten year long chess career – prominent among them are playing with the present world champion Vishy Anand; representing my State – Gujarat, my school my college in various National tournaments and being a State chess champion.
But, the leader in me always finds it difficult to market chess at least in the Indian subcontinent. In spite of the fact we have the present world chess champion from our country, there is very specialized and streamlined pervasiveness of chess in the country as compared to say countries like Russia. I have had a hard time taking the game amongst the youth spontaneously; perhaps owing to the perceptive passiveness of the game. Chess does not offer cheerleaders like an IPL match. And an average Indian’s span of focus stretches very little to sit through a classical chess match. And sadly so, this is the first time in history that India will be hosting a world chess championship in November 2013. Simply the culture of chess has been missing in our country so to say.
I think, chess as a game goes much beyond the permutations and combinations on the board. A typical chess championship match requires players to study their opponent right from the opponent’s childhood, in an effort to analyse and gauge his cognitive power, tactics and style of play. Every player plays differently in different positions and stages of one’s chess game. Some like it positional, some tactical, some a combination of the two, some like end-games and thus clearing pieces off board pretty early, and some are too good in their openings. So, chess is about studying psychologies of opponents as much as it is about studying positions.
When I read and see the world champions and the world renowned grandmasters; I simply get awed by the tremendous memory each one possesses. Magnus Carlsen has played against 10 international masters blindfolded. Anand and Kasparov plays with 200 players in one time simultaneously and defeats 95 % of them. That means the chess-grandmasters have to store and analyse a mammoth 200 positions and all their complexities in their mind at one time. And not to forget the fact that the differently-abled blind players also play chess stupendously. I have learnt that these players tend to concentrate better blindfoldedly – something that’s natural to them as a compensatory cognitive blessing. Ian McDownald’s seminal work on blind chess players was inspiring to say the least to me. (http://www.algorithmsthedocumentary.com/about-the-film/).
My dream is to meet the chess grandmasters of the world in their respective countries, including the world champions – Carlsen(Norway), Kramnik(Russia), Topalov(Bulgaria), Gelfand(Israel), Aronian(Armenia), Anand(India); learn about the chess culture in there and implement innovative and encouraging models in India to promote this game amongst the people, in particularly amongst the youth and children. I believe manifestation of this will lead to increased output in terms of research; strategic and analytical thinking right from the grass-root levels in India. All this is possible if a low-cost, affordable, easily accessible and visually stimulating model can be created across the country even penetrating to rural villages of the country. I want to create such an indigenous model, after getting cues from chess culture in different countries and meeting the world renowned chess grandmasters.