How difficult is it to pick a team of six among the 36 best chess players in the world? It was the challenge faced by India’s third Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay after being named the manager/ strategist of Ganges Grandmasters at the ongoing Global Chess League in Dubai.
The 64-year-old from Mumbai, who is an Arjuna Awardee, the first Indian to win a Grandmaster norm and a seven-time national champion, talks about the process of being a part of the league, the impact it has created in the chess world, the growth of the sport in India and more in an interaction with DH. Excerpts.
What impact does a tournament such as GCL have on the sport?
It is a great initiative for a sport like chess played in 195 countries. The league that has a combination of men, women and juniors of different age groups makes it interesting.
Your experience as a manager/ strategist?
I had to do my homework about players, their playing styles and the format they are good at. I studied all the 36 players before the auction and discussed the ones we need to pick for their qualities. That was the toughest task for me as a manager so far. After coming here it hasn't been much of a hassle at all because all of them are professionals with a positive mindset.
Being one of the pioneers of Indian chess, take us through your own journey.
Me and my two brothers were taught to play chess by my parents. And we started defeating them within three months and began playing with everyone we met. That pushed us to compete in serious tournaments that helped us get in touch with professionals.
Chess runs in our family from childhood and even after getting married (Thipsay’s partner is International master Bhagyashree, an Arjuna Awardee and Padma Shri). That’s why it worked for me because it wasn’t found boring by the others in the family.
How did the city you were born contribute to your career?
More than half of the national players in the early 70s were from Bombay. We were lucky to get in touch with them, especially India’s first national champ Ramchandra Sapre. All the top players in Bombay gathered everyday, except Sundays. It was like a self created chess gurukul where we would play, discuss moves and argue with each other in a healthy way.
What's the biggest difference between players of your generation and youngsters now?
We struggled to find out the best moves back then, sometimes we had to wait for the best move to be played by a big player at a tournament to learn it. We only had books to learn from, which was tough to get our hands on because the publications released these books once every three months. 15 years back when computers started beating human beings is when the transition happened. Study material can be downloaded easily and one doesn't even have to purchase them. The situation that lasted for more than 200 years had suddenly changed.
Chess has become mathematical these days. For example a match between two top Indian players last year - one who had studied till move no. 30 and the other who had stopped studying after move 27-28 became a battle of two equal competitors. The only problem about this is, technology teaches the best move but does not tell you why it is the best move.
Future of chess in India...
The last two-three decades have seen parents taking a lot of interest which is not the case in the other top chess playing nations. They are ready to spend money and time for training, traveling for competition and coaching. But the big gap to fill is the number of women who play the sport. Less than 10 per cent of the active players in the world are women which is the case here in India too. Not a great improvement in that aspect. Another barricade we need to break is for more Indians to get into the candidates (a step to qualify for the World Chess Championship). No Indian other than Anand has ever become a candidate (top 8 in the world). Sponsorship for players is coming in crores. So the future is bright, and India may have her next World champ in the next 10-15 years.