SACHIN DESERVES BHARAT RATNA: VISWANATHAN ANAND

Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand joins the chorus that Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar should be conferred with the highest civilian award, 'Bharat Ratna'

Calculated Moves

Dronavalli Harika has been winning laurels for the country regularly, gaining respect from her peers and critics alike.

Dronavalli Harika always gave an impression since childhood that she is destined to achieve big in chess, an activity she started after watching her father and elder sister Anusha dabble on the board. Proof of this rare trait was evident when she shocked the former world champion Maya Chiburdanidze in a third round game of the 2002 World Cup in Ramoji Film City (where India's best known face in chess world, Viswanathan Anand, emerged champion).

Cool attitude

It was a stunning display from the Guntur girl against a world champion for 18 years. The intensity and the cool-like-cucumber attitude of Harika stood out even as the focus was on the bigger names like Anand and Humpy from that World Cup.

That this gifted chess player achieved at the age of 12 against such an experienced campaigner was perhaps the first big indication of things to come. Amidst this backdrop, when the 20-year-old Harika has become only the second Indian woman after Koneru Humpy to win the Grandmaster title in men's category to join about 20-member elite group in the world it was, perhaps, not a big surprise.

Silent killer

A product of the Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer School, Harika is always known in chess circles as the ‘silent killer'. One vividly remembers how composed she was, for Standard VIII student then, to down Maya in that World Cup. The way she seized on a blunder from the famous rival on the 33rd move to gain an exchange was the spark of a genius in the making as it saw Maya's rook trapped and force her to resign after 53 moves. Interestingly, Harika, now a Business Management student, is still coached by Narahari Venkata Sita Rama Raju. “I owe a lot to him. He, like my family members, has been a great source of strength and inspiration,” acknowledges the champion player.

No big talk

For someone who was the youngest Indian girl to win the National ‘B' championship, Harika never really talked big. She preferred to let her performances on the 64 squares speak even as she cornered the best of the opponents with her amazing repertoire. If Harika has developed some sort of a knack of winning big titles just when critics were trying to raise their heads, it is purely because of her commitment and hard work. “In chess, you don't get results immediately. It is a totally different world altogether where you have to keep improving with each game,” she says. Some of the big achievements of Harika include the silver in the Commonwealth chess championship in Mumbai, winning three World youth chess championship titles—in 2004, she won the girls under 14 in Greece, in 2006 she won the girls Under 18 in Georgia and in 2008 the World juniors.

“Yes, Arjuna Award is something special. It gives you a rare feeling that your efforts and sacrifices are recognised,” recalls Harika about the award she got in 2007. “Definitely, the award and the Grandmaster men's title are two of the most memorable achievements for me,” says Harika, who loves to watch entertainment movies and cooking if she has the time.

For the record, Harika has been on a different plane in the last 12 months, winning bronze in the 2010 Asian Games women's individual event, being a quarter-finalist in the prestigious 2010 Women's world championship, a silver medallist in the 2011 Commonwealth chess championship in South Africa, winning the 2011 Asian women's individual title.

“I am enjoying the sport. The ultimate dream is to be a world champion. I will play the game till I achieve that. There is no deadline for that,” she says. Thankfully for Harika, with Airports Authority of India and Pune-based Lakshya supporting her in a big way she is not overtly bothered on the financial front.

“It is like this. Thanks to these two organisations, I can focus on my game more,” she says. Interestingly, Wipro supported her and this helped to take part in some of the big events then.

Dronavalli Ramesh, Deputy Executive Engineer in Panchayat Raj (Amaravati), and mother Swarna agree that Humpy and Harikrishna have had a major influence on their daughter. “She is very keen to reach their levels of excellence,” say the proud parents. But, it is obvious that Harika is now clearly stepping out of the shadows of the two more familiar names of Indian chess, keen to script her own piece of history.

Topalov Beaten by Anand in Amber Chess Tournament

World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India defeated Bulgarian challenger Veselin Topalov 1.5-0.5 in the first round of the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament.

Anand got off to a flier in the final edition of this unique event winning the blindfold game with white pieces and signed peace in the rapid to get another good result against Topalov, who did not figure in any super tournaments in the past few months, The Times of India points out.

In May 2010, Bulgaria's top chess player and former World Champion Veselin Topalov Veselin Topalov was defeated by India's Viswanathan Anand , who retained his world chess title after winning by the narrowest of margins 6:5 in Bulgaria's capital Sofia. Prior to that, Topalov defeated Kamsky in his last challenge before the title match.

In February 2011, it was announced that Topalov is launching a new bid for the world title.

His bid to reclaim his title is set to begin with the Candidates Matches in May 2011.

The winner of the Candidates Matches 2011, scheduled by FIDE to be held in Kazan, Russia, from May 3rd to 27th will qualify to challenge the World Champion Vishwantath Anand in a 12-game match during the first half of 2012.

The other pairs of contenders are Boris Gelfand (Israel) – Shekhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbajan), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) – Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Levon Aronian (Armenia) – Alexander Grischuk (Russia)

The pairings are organized in such a way that Kramnik and Topalov could only meet in the finals in the third match, however, one wonders what will happen in the event that Topalov does qualify to meet either Kramnik or Grischuk, considering that the Bulgarian's manager previously declared that Topalov would not play against a Russian on Russian soil.

Anand finishes second in Tata Chess; Nakamura champion

Wijk Aan Zee : Five times winner Viswanathan Anand had to be content with a second place finish following a draw with Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia in the 13th and final round of 73rd Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.

The World Champion could draw a big consolation from the fact that he would be the number one ranked player all over again as the results here proved that he will be overtaking world number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the next rating list.

Hikaru Nakamura of United States owns the title after drawing his final round game with Wang hao of China.

For the records, Nakamura tallied 9 points in all, a half point more than Anand in this category-20 super tournament between 14-players.

The American not only performed way beyond his rating of 2751 but also finished ahead of the world's top four ranked players.

Anand got the better position with his black pieces but could not find a breakthrough AS Nepomniachtchi simply got an impregnable position in the endgame arising out of a Sicilian defense game.

The Indian ace settled for a draw in 37 moves.

"Disappointing," Anand said after the final results were out.

"When I reached a plus-four score (Four wins and rest draws), I felt I was well on my way to a final victory but Hikaru just kept winning, picking up six points in a row, which was quite amazing.

"But I'm not unhappy; it's difficult to be unhappy with a plus-four score. It's a pity I didn't manage to win the tournament but I think I performed above my rating, which isn't bad at all," the World Champion said.

The third place was shared by Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian of Armenia who both scored 8 points apiece. The last round of the tournament turned out to be a damp with all the games ending in draws for the first time in the event this year.

India keen to host Anand's 2012 world title match? Read more: India keen to host Anand's 2012 world title match?

CHENNAI: India would most probably host Viswanathan Anand's world chess title match in 2012. India's decision to join the fray came after London withdrew its bid to host the match last week.

Though the FIDE (world chess federation) had not confirmed the venue because the qualifying matches (Candidates phase) to identify the challenger to Anand were still in progress, the London organizers wanted an agreement to be reached by January 29, 2011.

FIDE had its presidential board meeting in Turkey last weekend which was attended by All India Chess Federation secretary DV Sundar. "The meeting did not discuss any bid in detail," Sundar told TOI. "But we offered to host the match in India," added Sundar, who is also the vice-president of FIDE.

London was projected as the city to host the match since 2009 but the sponsors found it difficult to finalize the deal with FIDE. At the moment, only Anand is the sure candidate for the match and his challenger would emerge from a series of Candidates matches to be held this year. "FIDE can't finalize any venue before the Candidates matches are over in May because the venue should be acceptable to the challenger as well. So the bids would be finalized only in May. Unfortunately, London said they could not wait that long," said Sundar.

This is not the first time that Anand's world championship matches have run into problems. The last championship match between Anand and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria had sponsorship problems but then Bulgaria stood behind its candidate (Topalov) and offered the maximum bid to seal it.

But this time the Indian federation seems ready for the big match. The last time the country hosted a world championship match in 2000 in New Delhi, Anand went on to win the title for the first time, though the final was held in Tehran.

"London has been a probable venue for the world championships since 2009 and the sponsors had shown keen interest in staging the event. I have not been involved in the negotiations so I can't comment on what has transpired. The world championships in 2012 would be one of the most closely-contested matches, personally for me it would be a very big challenge," said Anand, who reached Chennai on Sunday after the Wijk aan Zee tournament.

Anand's wife and manager Aruna said Anand would be happy to play the match in India but she was not sure about the Indian bid. "Anand has played three FIDE world championship matches in India and he has done well here. It would be a good challenge," she told TOI.

If India finally gets the nod, Chennai is the city that looks likely to host the match. AICF has already decided to host the world junior chess championship this year here and the 2012 match could be the grand finale.

Chess: The calculations of Vishy Anand

Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at games by the world champion Vishy Anand. He recently regained the no 1 spot on the rating list, so this seems a fitting moment to feature his play. His depth and speed of calculation marked him out as a special talent in his youth, and he has lost none of that sharpness in his maturity.

RB What is the white knight doing on g5? This was the first thing to strike me when Dan sent me this position. Has it just captured a piece? Has it been trapped? Has there been a whole series of bloody exchanges on that square? Is it a time-pressure blunder? I couldn't work it out, so I looked up the game on chessgames.com and saw that, no, actually, Short has just played the knight from a safe square – h3 – to its present perilous location, and he would only have done so if he believed the piece was immune. The trouble is, I don't believe it. I say trouble because I am a long way behind Short.

You can see at once how, after taking on g5, Black could end up with connected pawns on h4, g5 and f5, which would be very nice. But you can also see a little problem, which I ran into at the first attempt: 1...hxg5 2 fxg5 Nxg5, and immediately you get the point – 3 Qxh4+, with a very bleak future for the black king. Does that mean the knight is immune? I think Short miscalculated because I don't see anything wrong with 1...Nxg5 2 fxg5 hxg5, when Black is simply a pawn up.

DK Black might be a pawn up, but with his king exposed it's not so simple. Short continued with a further sacrifice: 3 Bxg5 Bxg5 4 Qe2, threatening a check on h5, which he thought was winning. But Anand had seen a step further: 4...Qd6 is the only move, but it's good enough. After 5 Qh5+ Qh6 blocked and the attack was over. All planned by Anand before he took the knight on g5.