Chennai’s chess mates

For decades now, Viswanathan Anand has been the go-to inspirational figure for chess aspirants across the country; his phenomenal success and understated demeanour made an enviable role model. 

Earlier this week though, it emerged that ‘Vishy’ will have someone to share his burden with another Chennaiite — a 12-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who became the second youngest Grandmaster in history at the Gredine Open in Italy. This raises the imminent question — will Praggu now usher in a golden era of chess prodigies from Chennai, which is already considered a traditional hub for the sport in India? 

“Even though Praggu’s win is historic, this is not surprising, for our city has an outstanding history of producing young talents,” says RB Ramesh, Pragg’s dedicated coach, who has mastered his winning journey, and runs the famous Chess Gurukul academy in T Nagar along with his wife Aarthie Ramaswamy. 

The husband and wife duo are both Grandmasters themselves, nurturing several champions down the years. Chess Gurukul might be one of the more prominent names, but a cursory look online reveals that literally every neighbourhood in the city boasts of numerous such academies, run by former champions, some even in the dining rooms of houses, where hundreds of beady-eyed kids sharpen their skills on the 64 squares. 

“Though there is no specific age group for children to join, the Russians say that four is ideal. However, many begin playing properly well after the age of 10 or 11, and still do exceptionally well. After so many years in the field, it’s easy for a coach to spot talent early and take them forward,” said RB Ramesh, who quit his job in ONGC 10 years ago to start this academy and breed prodigies. 

And it’s not just students from Chennai, most of the city’s wellknown coaches (and there are many)  have kids training under them from across the world. 

Ramesh routinely wakes up early in the morning for Skype sessions with students from the USA, Europe and so on. But despite the best efforts of such teachers, it’s no surprise that the drop-out rate in chess is quite high, compared to other sports as most kids choose to focus on their academics or college careers after playing for a few years. The key to sustaining their growth and interest relies heavily on parental support. 

“Most important of all is the child’s perseverance along with the coach’s influence,” said Dr Sivasundari, a gynaecologist, whose son 13-year-old NarendranGauthaman has been playing since he was eight years old. Narendran bagged gold in Austria in the U-16 category, as well as placing first in Germany in the U-18 division, as his recent achievements. 

“Honestly, being the parent of a chess prodigy is knowing that there’s an ocean to cross. But we ensure he studies well too. My son is currently in the top 50 nationally U-14, and has a rating of 2068. But it’s taken him a lot of effort to achieve this. I believe that his coach, Ramesh sir, has not just moulded him as a player, but also into a good human being. Moreover, when he must attend chess camps for an entire day, the school management is entirely supportive,” she said, proudly. 

Perhaps this could be because there are several studies that indicate one’s level of chess training is directly proportional to a person’s intelligence. Ebenezer Joseph, who happens to be India’s first chess trainer to be accredited by the World Chess Federation (FIDE), says that there is definitive proof that cognitive ability is increased along with other processes like reasoning, perception and so on by learning chess. 

Joseph runs the Emmanuel Chess Centre (ECC) at the Russian Cultural Centre, another bastion of the city’s chess scene that has prevailed since 1972. “In fact, our city shares a rich history with Russia, that helped a lot for the chess scene to develop here in the 70s. Since then, the sport has always held a level of appeal for children in Tamil Nadu, and students taking it up have performed admirably well in school. 

Though I’d been saying it for years, people didn’t believe me… until I got my PhD in cognitive psychology and was able to prove it to them,” said Joseph, who has trained nearly 150 other trainers and close to 7000 children, over the course of a long career. 

He added that many coaches like him choose to remain in Chennai and hold high the flag here for the sport, despite getting offers from other parts of India and overseas. “It would be good if the government encouraged chess to be played in schools like it was proposed earlier.” 

That takes us back to former CM J Jayalalithaa’s reign, when she had proposed to make it mandatory in government schools. However, the plan is yet to turn into reality. “It is still in the works,” insisted General Secretary of the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, P. Stephen Balasamy. 

“But it is upto the government to help us implement it. For now, we try our best to work with the 12,000 registered students under our organisation across the state. Over 200 tournaments are held annually, and around 500 students participate in each of them. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that over one-third of chess champions in India are from Tamil Nadu,” he said. 

But there is no denying that it ultimately comes down to the children themselves to make some tough choices. Grandmaster and two-time national champion Karthikeyan Murali made the decision to not attend school for four years to focus on his then-fledgling career and it worked out. 

“It was my parents who pushed me to take up chess initially, but later I had to take the call of not attending school from my fifth to ninth standard, so I could perfect my chess game,” said the now 19-year-old, who is pursuing his B. Com degree via correspondence. 

“I’m playing chess professionally now, and hold a honorary job as well. I think Praggnanandhaa’s success will definitely shed more light on the chess scene in the state and inspire more kids to follow in our wake,” he added.