HISTORIC BRONZE AT CHESS OLYMPIAD 2014 - A DREAM COME TRUE FOR ALL OF US !!

Every chess player in the world who is serious about the game shares a common dream while growing up - to be world champion.

As he grows up and starts achieving laurels , experiences failure, and learns to bounce back -  he starts dreaming again. To play for his country. To win medals for his country.

And then there is the Chess Olympiad. The Ultimate Dream for every patriotic chess player . As a matter of fact, going through the process of becoming a professional sportsperson makes u patriotic automatically , so you can safely say that at the end of the day, despite the various complaints we have about the lack of support and encouragement for chess in our country, and despite the disappointing lack of interest by the general public and media in our game, all chess players are VERY patriotic. 

& then there is the Indian Chess Player. Every Indian chess player shares an additional dream. The dream of winning a team medal at the Chess Olympiad. Simply because we had never won a team medal - either in Open or in Women - yet. NEVER EVER, during the 90 year old history of the Olympiad.

& Today, that dream has come true. The Indian team created History by winning the Bronze Medal at the Chess Olympiad 2014 today at Tromso, Norway. Our young team consisting of Parimarjan Negi, SP Sethuraman, Krishnan Sasikiran, B Adhiban and MR Lalith Babu, with Coach RB Ramesh, stood 3rd among 177 teams and alllll the godamn best players in the world !

Maybe someone reading this, who doesnt follow chess as much, may think that I too was part of the team. Actually I was not . In fact when the Olympiad started I was initially very disappointed that I did not make it to the team - the Women's team - this time and did not even follow it much during the initial rounds. But then , partly because i simply could not stay away from following the olympiad for too long, and partly because better sense prevailed , I simply decided to enjoy this olympiad for now, learn from the games, prepare well in order to make it to the team next time, and cheer for my favourite teams, my friends and ofcourse -  for India !

Maybe someone reading this might think, hey ok so great they won bronze..we won so many medals in CWG, so many golds, wots the big deal if we won 1 more medal ? Firstly any medal won while representing the nation requires incredible effort and is praiseworthy. It lifts up the hope of an entire nation. Chess Olympiad , if anything, can be compared with the Olympics. Since chess, for some reason or the other, is not part of Olympics ( yet ) we have a separate Chess Olympiad every two years. It is a team championship, so the total score of all the players in each team in a particular match makes for the team score. So we have to not only play our individual games properly but also take care of the factors that come into play in a teamgame, like looking out for each other - if your teammate is in inferior position, u try to look for a win on your board and balance out the result  - , helping ur teammates out with their preparation before the game, believing in your teammates - building up their confidence, and playing with team spirit !! Combining individual factors with team ones and trying to find that perfect balance can be tricky. For eg, sometimes even if your teammate is in an inferior position, it could be a more prudent idea to play objectively on your board rather than going all out, and just believing in your teammates defensive abilities. Once when my teammate was in a slightly difficult position I tried to force a win on my board in an equal positon..& ended up with an inferior endgame while my teammate won her game in the next 10 mins !! So I spent the rest of the game cursing myself for my foolishness , though finally I was lucky enough to save the game. Quite a difficult situation , aint it !?

There are 5 players in each team, & with 4 boards on each table. That means that on any given day only 4 out of the 5 team members play & the 5th one is kept as reserve. This in turn means that even though u get to know which team u r playing the next day on the previous night itself, u get to know who exactly is your opponent ( among the 5 team members ) only a few hours before the round. This makes preparing for Olympiad games all the more difficult. Add to it all the pressure, tension, drama. Add to it the fact that almost all the countries in the world play chess and since the chess olympiad is supposed to be a celebration of chess, they have done away with any qualification process, meaning that all of these countries actually participate !! So this year there were 177 teams in the Open section and 136 teams in the Women's. WHOA !! 

& Lastly, we have 11 rounds in chess. We do not follow a knockout format. While the knockout format has its pluses and minuses, I feel playing all the 11 rounds, irrespective of result, is a real test of your strength. Cause that means you need to perform well consistently , and if you lose, u absolutely NEED to bounce back ! Nothing doing. 

NOW can you imagine what it takes to win a medal at the Olympiad ?? Now do you know what a big deal it is ??

IT IS A HUGGEEE DEAL !!!

I truly Hope that our country and our Government realises this, and rewards the players and the team coach for their Historic Achievement, in a befitting manner. Images of Leander Paes winning Olympic Bronze at the 1996 Olympics are still fresh in my mind. I hope the images of our team winning the Olympiad Bronze in Olympiad 2014 will also remain fresh in India and her people's minds for years to come. 

On a personal front, I was staring at the results page for about 45 mins , looking at the Indian Flag at the 3rd position. I was so happy. I am so happy. 

For years this sport was completely dominated by USSR. When we got our 1st GM in Vishwanathan Anand, USSR already had atleast a 100. But Anand showed that 1 Indian is enough !! :) After winning World Juniors in 1987 and breaking into the elite in 1991, there was no stopping him ! He went on to become 5 times World Champion and will be playing for the World Crown again in the coming November. I am sure this Bronze is also going to be a stepping stone for even greater laurels for Indian Chess. Now that dream of winning an Olympiad Medal has been fulfilled. Now every Indian Chess Player will share a new dream - of Winning Olympiad GOLD ! :) 

Thanks TEAM INDIA - CHESS OLYMPIAD 2014 for making our dreams come true and allowing us to dream bigger !! :) Super proud of you !! So well deserved ! 

My experience at Solitude : A sudden realisation.

I know I havent written for a veryyy long time, though my initial promise to myself was to write every week !

But i just dint find the inclination..thoda tha, par itna nahi..so just dint..

But today i experienced something deep..that i would like to share here ..

A quick background info 1st  :

Well, so in July 2010 I played this tournament in Benasque, Spain. I was 21 years old & it was the 1st time that I had planned to play a few tournaments in Europe - on my own -  unlike with this whole team , which is what we normally do. So well ofcourse i was very excited esp since Benasque was the 1st of these 4 tournaments. Also benasque is a very beautiful & picturesque "hillstation" with exactly the kind of "ambience" that i preferred at that time - green hills & flowing rivers ! But i doubt if i would have felt any less happier or excited had it been the 91st time that i was travelling on my own ( cause 100 is always special rite ) or had benasque been this awefully boring town. As i was just in a happy space in my life then. I was in loooooveeee with chess and I loved just being able to play chess. I remember I made A LOT of good friends in this tournament..I was not much bothered about my immediate results etc. I was hunting for my final IM norm at this time, & i happened to miss it & I dint even win a prize actly, but I was sure it was just a matter of time before that I started achieving my dreams !

                                                      ME AT BENASQUE :)
                                        ( my t shirt reads "beautiful inside" :) )

Many times in the past 4 years i have longed to go back to that moment and be that person again. So confident, happy & thankful for this life - for no seemingly obvious reason ! Sure, I was the reigning World junior champion , but I had also lost rating in ALL the tournaments that i played in post world juns ! So many times, especially after a bad tmt, i I have longed to go back to that time , that mindset..been jealous of that 21 year old me.

( On a side note : Maybe 21 year olds generally feel more confident as they havent experienced much of life yet but think they do, as they are not 'juniors' any more ? Also, my feelings about my former self maybe a bit exaggerated as I once read that we have a tendency to romanticise the past..well anyway u got the picture. )

One speciality of my time at Benasque was my daily routine of going for long walks atleast 3 times a day..! morning, afternoon & evening..just to clear my mind & feel good..I remember there was this beautiful "long walk road" of mine..with flowers, & trees, & hills & rivers..

Each time that I walked down this road, I felt so lucky to be able to experience something like this, to come to europe , to be able to be a chessplayer and play chess..I would wonder what can get better than this ?

Well..

So, I m here at solitude for the past 3 months rite ? & there is this HUGE forest behind our academy, have i mentioned that ? Infact this castle was built by the duke so that he & his family could stay here while he went out for his hunting escapades in the forest behind..& well, a lot of people go for walks in the forest so even i would have followed in my 1st month , had it not been for "The Legend of the Hungarian Guy & the Wild Pig " . Well so there was this hungarian fellow at solitude last year who was attacked by wild pigs in the forest & had to be hospitalised & sent back to hungary ! I heard his story in my 1st week here, with mixed up details ofcourse, so was super scared of going anywhere near the forest...

    A pic I found on the net depicting an aerial view of Solitude surrounded by the forest.

But last week, i finally DARED ! I figured, well every1 goes..so it must be ok..yeah well its not the best policy to follow the herd but sometimes it works out fine. So follow I did :) & since i have seen bhaag milkha bhaag now & also have access to the songs from that movie, I regard jogging / running to be a better form of exercise than walking these days. So I decided to go for a jog in the forest..& i try to go everyday now..well its the most surreal beautiful liberating experience..

The pathway from Solitude which leads up to the forest

                            

In the day

 Today evening

                                   

Today as i was about to enter the "solitude forest"..i looked around..it was 6.20 pm..so the moon was out , a full moon at that ! but it wasnt dark yet..there was the golden glow of the sun, which made the trees look half brown & half orange..huge talll thin trees on both sides & so many pathways in between..providing u with so many crossroads & choices..i just go straight as this awesome inspiring music i am listening to keeps saying "bas tu bhaag milkha " .. so i dont think and just run. I pause it from time to time to listen to the sounds of the forest..its eery / calm / chirpy..it could be anything u want actually :) there is even a cute little cottage in middle of the forest & its open in day time - so u can sit there & read a book & have tea .. & u know whats the best feeling ? The best feeling is to run all the way & reach this particular point - & look around. Usually there are a lot of people running & cycling on those tracks but they keep moving rite - so when I reach this place & look around, theres no one.. & i can simply gaze till very very far in all the four directions, with me in the centre, as if I have conquered something. It makes me feel like the HERO of my movie!

The running track 

                                                Had a full moon today evening

So today evening, just as I was about to enter the forest and was thinking about all that I was going to experience inside, it hit me - THIS TOPS BENASQUE MAN !

No more regrets about leaving benasque behind anymore ;

               " There are far far better things ahead than the ones we leave behind " 

                                                           - C.S. Lewis.

                                                                      :)

Sorry , the pics from the forest are not so great as i took them from my phone and it was evening already..Will upload better pics as soon as i take some :) 

My experience at Solitude : A day trip to Switzerland !

Date : 16th Jan 2014

To be honest it was very difficult to write this post , because there is just soooo much to write about and sooo many pictures to share ! I dont know if I will be able to describe all the beautiful sights i saw and convey all the emotions I felt during this trip - which infact lasted only 14 hours and nothing major happened either - I'll try !

So, did I suddenly decide to just take a bag and go and see switzerland all by myself, within the 1st week of my arrival to germany ? Ok, I can be impulsive I know, but not so much ! Last week I met the officials of the Stuttgart Chess club - Claus and Bernd - who happen to be just very warm and friendly. I am still getting used to not being shocked when i meet them cause they are just tooo sweet !

Thats me with Bernd and Ana Matnadze on the left and thats Claus on the right.

Ana is georgian but settled in Spain, She saved me from total isolation by co-incidentally chosing the same time as me for her solitude fellowship :)

One of their club members, Vera Nebolsina , who also happens to be an ex fellow of Solitude , was having a 'performance on chess ' ( !! ) at St. Gallen, Switzerland on the 16th and so I, along with Ana , tagged along with Claus and Bernd to cheer for Vera and also to check out exactly how pretty is switzerland..is it worth  the hype ? !

Our route. St. Gallen is a 3.5 hour drive by car from Stuttgart, but we had 2 stops in between  - The picturesque town of Stein am Rhein and the famous Lake Constance !

On the way to swiss I was constantly confused about whether we were still in germany or had crossed the border as the area around sttugart is also very clean, picturesque, full of cute houses with those typical fensterladen windows and vast green stretches of land..

Soo how do u know that u r in switzerland ? 

1. U will see the snow clad Swiss Alps and squeal in excitement ! 

The sky was such a beautiful blend of blue white and grey tht day, tht its difficult to figure out where the mountains end and the sky begins..

2. U will see ponies and horses crossing the road :)

3. U will find that most of the houses and buildings are joint to one another and if its a bunglow then it has its walls painted with these typical designs  -

4. Germany has clean streets and fresh air but in Switzerland the streets will be cleaner and the air purer !

5. Everything will be much more expensive !! :)

But none of these pointers cud have prepared me for Stein Am Rheim, for I never thought such a place could exist in today's times ! The entire town is so beautiful and artistic, tht you feel as if u r inside a painting, a movie, a theme park, a book ..  in a different era altogether ! 

                                       
                                         STEIN AM RHEIN !

WITH ITS BEAUTIFULLY PAINTED WALLS !

Well, infact this town was built in the medieval era, so now u know why one feels so ! They have managed to preserve most of the ancient buildings as not much of the town was destroyed in the war. Infact Stein Am Rhein was even awarded some prize for preserving its architectural heritage ! Many of the buildings are inhabited by people, though i think these extra artistic ones, like the one u see above, are just preserved, to be admired from a distance. 

The Rathaus ( Town hall, seen in the pics above ) was built in 1500.  

                                       
                          an elegant fountain in the middle of the tiny street 

                                          

                             i was clearly delighted :)

u will find many ancient motifs and even gothic concepts on the wall paintings and architure. For eg. Wot u see in this above pic is the village church, with 2 dragons on its sides with water coming out of their mouths in earlier times !

                                         
                                         Built in 1478, and still inhabited !

                                   

                                         Me having eine schone zeit ! 

And once you are done admiring all these pretty buildings, u discover the river rhein calmly running through this town , offering a place to just sit in solitude amidst nature..but tht I can do even in stuttgart and we had to be at St. Gallen on time so we decided to move on ..

                                       

I have realised - if u want to see Europe, u shud go and see the tiny towns and villages. And travel by flight as less as possible..try and make friends with some1 from tht town or atleast tht country..If u r a chess player, u cud just visit one of the local chess clubs and make friends easily ! The country side and natural sights are the most beautiful..the air is clean, fresh..with hills, rivers and castles around u ! Cities to sab ek jaise hi hote hai. Its enough if you see just 1 or 2. Barcelona dekh lo to lagta hai sabse happening city dekh liya duniya me ! Also, if u r one of those people who have this compulsive habit of listening to music while travelling, then make sure u forget ur headphones at home and just look out of the window while u r out there ! U dont wanna miss that..be in the moment ! Talk to people around u, get to know them, the place..observe..its much nicer to get to know about things through conversations and discovery rather than through google !


Will write about the rest of the trip in Part 2 ..till then hope u liked the pics & ciao !

My experience at Solitude - Day of arrival and 1st impressions !

9th Jan 2014 : Day of Arrival at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany.

To put it in a gist, my day was filled with long queues, travel woes, a heart full of excitement coupled with sheer delight, at the academy's sight ! :p

My Lufthansa flight from Mumbai to Frankurt was sooooo over crowded , mostly with US returning Bombayites, that I was stuck in a Traffic Jam at 1 am at the entrance of Mumbai Airport for 15 mins,  had to wait another 15 mins OUTSIDE gate C before I could get in, only to join longer queues at the check in counter, immigration, boarding & even within the flight itself.! Hushhhh..I was soo tired that I slept throughout the flight..I was soo tired that I dint notice that the flight dint take off for 1 hour well past its time of departure..which had its own consequences..anyway , so basically my flight journey was not so exciting , but the next part of my journey more than compensated for it because - I had a TRAIN to Stuttgart !! YAYY !

Before I proceed further, I would like to share 1 useful piece of info :  Frankfurt railway station is connected to the Airport so its very convenient to book a train to your onward journey within Germany. However, if you are not familiar with Frankfurt airport then its advisible to keep a minimum 2 hour gap as the Airport is SOOOO HUGE & complicated that its very easy to get lost, or atleast feel lost !

             
                                         THE FRANKFURT RAILWAY STATION !

Its sheer bliss to travel by rail or road when you dont have any work to get done, deadlines to meet, or a tournament venue to reach - when you can simply be in the moment, & enjoy the experience of travelling. Even more so when you are in a new city, a new country...I spent my whole train journey just looking out of the window..:)

                                                   & clicked some selfies :p

Finally, I reached Stuttgart at around 1 pm, took a cab from the station - my cabbie was an Indian who helped me a lot with info about the place & also with my super heavy bag - and as we approached the academy this is what it looked like ..........

& as we went around the building trying to find the entrance, THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE !!

                                              THE SOLITUDE CASTLE !

Only now did I recollect that 'Schloss' - from Academy Schloss Solitude - meant Castle in german !
Thats rite ! I am staying in an actual castle and I am going to be here for the next 3 months !! yayyyy !!

Much happened in my 1st week here, but will write about that next time, for now here are some pics of the Academy campus :)

                                                   Notice the 'A' ? 

I find these typical german windows soo pretty ! I realised the windows are this way not only in the castle but infact in most of the houses in germany ..

Isnt it sooooooooooooooooooooooooo prettyyy !?!?!!!

Till next time, Tschuss !!