A number of the nation’s most veteran grandmasters and the subsequent line of India’s chess battlers have made their technique to Guntur to compete on the ongoing Nationwide Chess Championships, being held on the Vignan College campus.
Amongst these are veterans like Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Sasikiran Krishnan, Sethuraman SP, Abhijeet Gupta and younger stars like Iniyan Pa, Srihari LR, Prraneeth Vuppala and Aarit Kapil.
However among the many 394 chess gamers competing on the Nationals —which embody as many as 14 grandmasters and 30 worldwide masters—one identify may stand out: Dronacharya awardee Ashok Koneru
Ashok is the daddy and the inspiration behind Koneru Humpy, one of many largest chess gamers to emerge from the nation. Ashok is again on the board taking part in in his first rated event after a spot of twenty-two years. For the previous twenty years, loads of his life was consumed by propelling the trailblazing profession of his daughter, who was the primary girl from India to develop into a Grandmaster.
Chess just isn’t a sport that a lot of India’s prime stars inherited from their mother and father. Some mother and father have by no means performed a sport. Some, by means of system, can not inform the distinction between a king and a queen. Others, like world champion Gukesh Dommaraju’s father Rajini Kanth, often dabble in a little bit of chess simply to cross the time.
However in Humpy’s household, Ashok has at all times been the true chess obsessive.
“He performs on-line chess each day from morning to night. There will probably be days once I don’t see chess in any respect. However he doesn’t miss taking part in chess even for a single day,” Humpy had advised The Indian Specific in an interview after she had gained the 2024 World Speedy Championship title in New York.
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As a baby, Humpy remembers that her father could be sad when she accepted a draw when she may have battled on, even when that sport led to a draw.
“These days, for my part, Humpy is much less aggressive,” Ashok had advised Specific earlier this 12 months after her World Speedy title. “I need to see her at her finest: as an aggressive participant. She by no means compromised for a draw (when she was younger). At all times fought for a win. That’s what I need to see.”
Ashok performed that very same model of preventing chess in his personal profession as a state-level participant. In his early days, he grew up on a staple weight loss plan of Bobby Fischer folklore.
“I began taking part in chess due to Bobby Fischer. I adopted the Boris Spassky versus Fischer match carefully on the radio,” he had recollected.
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Ashok initially needed to make a tennis participant out of his daughter, similar to his personal father. Venus and Serena Williams’ success was additionally an element. Then chess simply took over.
“I learnt chess from my father. He used to play each tennis and chess. When the Williams sisters have been making a mark on the earth, I noticed that there’s some huge cash in tennis. That’s why I needed my daughter to play tennis. However she was interested in chess whereas I used to be finding out the sport. When Humpy began taking part in, I assumed I may make her like Judit Polgar (the Hungarian chess grandmaster who’s the strongest girl chess participant of all time). So the very first thing I advised her was to beat my father. He was a club-level chess participant, however she beat him by the age of eight. After that, I performed towards her. I used to be a tournament-level participant. By the age of 11 she was in a position to beat me,” Ashok had beamed.
Whereas Ashok travelled with Humpy to occasions till 2011, she began getting ready on her personal afterwards. However, residing in the identical residence advanced in Vijayawada, Ashok continues to be at hand to offer his daughter chess recommendation each time she wants it. Like he did within the lead as much as final 12 months’s World Speedy Championship title, which was Humpy’s second after the one she claimed in 2019. It was Ashok’s recommendation to coach with out utilizing a chess engine, watch movies of previous world champions, play loads of on-line video games and resolve puzzles.
In his first sport again after 22 years on the Nationals, Ashok was handed a reminder of simply how a lot the demographics of the sport have modified over the previous decade. His opponent was Divith Reddy Adulla, a nine-year-old from Telangana, quickly rising up within the sport. Regardless of Ashok having a large edge within the rankings and being the sixty fourth seed, the sport led to a draw between Ashok and a boy who’s simply a few years older than his granddaughter Ahana.
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Ashok misplaced his second sport to Swapnil Priyadarshi. However from no matter we all know of Ashok, it’s doubtless he wouldn’t thoughts the loss an excessive amount of so long as he misplaced preventing for a win.