In the run-up to the forty fourth Chess Olympiad, the kings and queens from this Mecca of chess communicate on how the sport has developed within the metropolis because the Nineteen Sixties
In the run-up to the forty fourth Chess Olympiad, the kings and queens from this Mecca of chess communicate on how the sport has developed within the metropolis because the Nineteen Sixties
Chennai has an extended and vibrant historical past with chess, from temples of Shiva a number of hundred kilometres away celebrating its earliest iteration, often called sathurangam (at Thirupoovanur in Tiruvarur district), to it internet hosting the newest International Chess Olympiad at Mammallapuram, the primary of its variety to be held in India.
So, it’s not stunning that, in response to FIDE (the International Chess Federation, or Fédération Internationale des Échecs) as of 2022, of the 76 Grandmasters (GM) in India, 17 are from Chennai alone and of the 5 Indian gamers within the prime 55 on the earth, two are from Chennai. The query stays although, on whose shoulders are these up to date Chennai chess gamers standing?
Manuel Aaron in recent times
| Photo Credit: KARUNAKARAN M
Many think about trendy worldwide chess to have been popularised within the nation within the Nineteen Sixties and think about Manuel Aaron, 86, India’s first International Master (IM), to have spearheaded the motion. He humbly rejects this notion: “When I came here (Aaron had moved from colonial Burma) international chess was already there in Madras. Since 1938, The Hindu has been publishing chess news, I have [newspaper] cuttings with me. I didn’t popularise it, I was a part of the system,” he laughs.
“There were no chess clubs at all in the 1960s,” says Aaron, wanting again to how the sport was performed in Madras. “There were hardly any official places where people got together for chess. Some people’s homes were turned into impromptu chess clubs, like the Ramani Press in Mylapore [South Mada Street]. It was the result of a family of chess players. ‘I’m going to Ramani Press,’ that’s what everyone would say. There was also a place in Egmore: Mayor Radhakrishnan [Hockey] Stadium. People used to play chess on the lawns, bringing their own sets. Another place was Victoria Public Hall, next to the Moore Market.”
Members of the Indian chess crew en path to XIV Chess Olympiad, at Leipzig, East Germany on October 16, 1960. (Left to proper) Mulk Raj Wahi (Delhi), Manuel Aaron (National Champion and Captain of the crew), KN Sathe (Manager), Ramchandra Sapre (Bombay) and Ramesh Seth (Bombay).
| Photo Credit: STAFF
Word-of-mouth and newspapers had been how chess fans learnt the sport again then, recollects Aaron. “I was never taught… I just watched my parents play and got the hang of it. It must have been the same for many other people too.”
While The Mail and The Hindu printed chess items each week, The Hindu additionally hosted certainly one of its oldest trendy chess tournaments. “It all started with The Hindu” Aaron says. “In 1940, before anybody else was hosting open tournaments, The Kasturi Cup came into being. This was hosted by Kasturi Srinivasan, he was a chess lover.”
Growing up on this setting, Aaron discovered that an organised method to constructing a chess neighborhood would show invaluable to these . Which led to him accepting the then-Soviet Consul’s supply of beginning a chess membership on the Soviet Cultural Centre.
Manuel Aaron
| Photo Credit: Special association
Tal Chess Club, named after the eighth World Chess Champion Mikhail Tal, was based by Aaron and different Madras chess fans in what’s at this time the Russian Centre of Science and Culture. The membership itself was supported by the Soviets, by offering chess clocks, picket boards and books made in Russia, and charged a nominal ₹6 annual price for upkeep. This membership was a bunch to many who maintain ‘India’s first’ titles in chess.
Venkatachalam Kameswaran, India’s first International Arbiter (IA), was one of many membership’s preliminary members. “At that time there were clubs like YMCA Royapettah, with chess playing centres. Manuel Aaron, others and myself started a club in the Soviet Cultural Centre. This was where [Vishwanathan] Anand used to come very frequently with his mother, Sushila Viswanathan,” he says.
How Aaron set the board for Indian chess
Despite him stating he hadn’t popularised the sport, Aaron’s contributions to chess in Tamil Nadu and India are notable. He was a former two-time honorary secretary of the All India Chess Federation, the final secretary of the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, India’s solely IM for 17 years, 9 time nationwide chess champion, and the consecutive champion from 1969 to 1975, India’s first chess Arjuna awardee, within the Karpov-Kasparov, 1986 Match, he was an appeals committee member. He was a member of the FIDE Central Committee, a facilitator to aspiring chess youth together with Vishwanathan Anand and the president of Tal Chess Club.
He can be a prolific creator of chess literature, having edited Chess Mate, a month-to-month chess journal based by him in 1983 and contributed to the AICF Chronicle. He has authored six books on chess, together with Tamil Chess and Indian Chess History: 570 AD – 2010 AD (co-authored with chess historian Vijay D Pandit)
Kameswaran believes the teaching camps, which they held three to 4 occasions every week, helped Anand and different youth within the membership enhance.
Meenakshi Subbaraman and her sister Vijaylakshmi had been additionally amongst people who attended the membership. Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman was India’s first Women’s Grandmaster (WGM) and feminine IM. Meenakshi holds the title of WGM as effectively and was one of many prime ranked gamers alongside together with her sister. “There were hardly 10 of us when we started out. There were girls who couldn’t break the district barrier and there were more who couldn’t break the State barrier. There were only 10 who could go to the National level. Maharashtra women have always been strong in the women’s chess scene and to break that barrier was very difficult. The first to do that was Saritha M Reddy and then my sister.”
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, 23-2-2013: India’s first WGM Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi is all engrossed in the course of the National girls’s crew chess championship in Hyderabad on February 23, 2013.
| Photo Credit: SUBRAHMANYAM VV
She attributes most of hers, in addition to her sister’s, accomplishments to her father. “It was all my father’s work” she provides. “We were from a humble background, so we didn’t have any backup. It’s not an easy thing to dream so big. Even now it’s difficult, think about how it would have been 20-30 years back. He wanted to break the mold.”
In dialog with Bobby Fischer
Manuel Aaron has been the one Indian participant to have formally performed with Bobby Fischer, who many credit score as being a significant affect in popularising the sport. After his recreation Aaron recollects that Fischer used to “visit his hotel room, talk with me and chat about India”. Despite this temporary interplay, Aaron considers him a pal “In 1990, he he called me out of the blue and said ‘Can you arrange a match for me with [Vishwanathan] Anand?’. I said I’d try but he had some conditions, he said he’d be defending his world title against Anand and if it wasn’t accepted the match was off [Fischer refused to defend his title in 1975 against Karpov]. But this was after so many years after Kasparov and many other people were part of the international game scene. He’s not been world chess champion for some time. This plan didn’t work out.”
Another parent-child relationship introduced nearer by the Tal Chess Club was Ebenzer Joseph and his father, Cecil Joseph. “When the club had no interest in paying the high rent Ebenzer stepped in.” Aaron provides. “He started running the Emmanuel Chess Centre at the Russian Cultural Centre. His father Cecil Joseph was the last president of the club”
“I was the youngest participant to join the Tal Chess Club in the year it was initiated in, 1972. When I was five and a half” says Ebenzer, India’s first FIDE coach. “It was a glorious time, in the ‘70s and ‘80s. This was until the Soviet Union split; and Tal Chess Club had to close down. Ebenezer was willing to pay the rent, which continues to this day. And that’s how the club functions to this day in the same premises. At the time [1995], I pleaded with them. I said I’d pay on par with the American International School [the new tenants] for just two hours a week. I still do that to this day.”
Vishwanathan Anand being felicitated in his teenage years
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
Source: www.thehindu.com