|
April 2006 was the most productive
month in terms of grandmaster additions for India. When the Elo
rating list was published on April 1, 2006 it was certain that
P.Magesh Chandran of Madurai became India's twelfth grandmaster
as he crossed the required 2500 rating mark.
In the 43rd National A Chess Championship at
Visakhapatnam, Deepan Chakkaravarthy of Madurai Kamaraj University made
his third grandmaster norm to become India's 13th grandmaster. Later, in
the same month, Neelotpal Das of ONGC, Kolkata became India's 14th
grandmaster when he made his third and final norm at San Sebastian in
Spain. He had made the first two norms at Sort International Open and
Benasque in Spain last year.
India is ranked among the top 15 teams in Chess. Our team for the Turin
Olympiad is formidable with Viswanathan Anand at the top with Krishnan
Sasikiran, Pentyala Harikrishna, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda and
Diwakar Prasad Singh. One change in the team from the Calvia Olympiad of
2004 is that 30-year old untitled rising star D.P.Singh replaces GM
Abhijit Kunte.
The women's team for Turin 2006 is youthful with Mary Ann Gomes replacing
S.Meenakshi and Swati Ghate taking the place of Vijayalakshmi. Koneru
Humpy will be on the top board and the other team member is Dronavalli
Harika.
It was not all. We also had Mary Ann Gomes making a woman grandmaster norm
in the National Women's A Chess Championship that concluded at
Visakhapatnam on April 18.
Viswanathan Anand was made Ambassador for HIV/AIDS in India and it is the
biggest recognition for International Chess and the Chennai-born 36-year
old chess professional.
If there is a new rating list on April 30, 2006 FIDE will have a new No.1
in Viswanathan Anand. The April 1, 2006 rating list has Anand on 2803 and
Topalov at No.1 on 2804. Since that number was released, Anand had
defeated former World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov on April 1 in the
Bundesliga (German league) game and would be clearly ahead of Topalov
today.
Also in April, Anand helped his German team Baden Baden to win the
prestigious German team title. Anand himself scored 6/8 and contributed
heavily by playing on the top board. Anand has been playing in the highest
paying German league for the last four years.
From May 9-21, Anand will be playing in the MTel Masters at Sofia. It will
help decide who will be No.1 since both Anand and Topalov are in the fray.
More Articles
Published on 03.05.2006
|
