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