The Hindu : India-China match in Malaysia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2003

Sport

Sport - Chess

India-China match in Malaysia

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE SEPT. 23. A six-month coaching programme for Indian players will commence here on October 1. Some well-known foriegn coaches, including Evgeny Vladimirov from Kazakhstan, will conduct these camps, for both senior and age-group players.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs and the Sports Authority of India sanctioned such an extensive camp after being impressed by the consistently superb shows by the country's players in various international tournaments, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) secretary and FIDE vice president, P.T. Ummer Koya told The Hindu here on Tuesday. "We are very happy that the Government continues to support chess in a big way", he said.

Apart from Vladimirov, who has been working with the Indian players for the last four years, Ruslan Sherbakov and Alexander Lyssenko from Russia and Maxim Sorokin from Argentina would also be conducting the camps. All the coaches have extensively trained the Indians in the past.

"These coaches know the strengths and weaknesses of our players, and have given us excellent results," said Mr. Koya. "That's why we've decided to stick with them".

The FIDE vice president also said that India and China, the two superpowers of Asian chess, would play a match in Malaysia early next year. He said the match would kick-off a series of matches for India's leading men and women players.

"After the match in Malaysia, there would be one match in India and another in China".

He said he held discussion with the Malaysian Chess Federation's honorary life president Datuk Tan Chin Nam about the Match during his visit to Kuala Lumpur last month. "The Malaysian authorities are very keen to conduct the India-China match there, and they have extended their full support for its conduct. Mr. Tan Chin Nam is known for his patronage of chess events. He has promised to institute a trophy for the India-China match. There would be a prize-money of $15,000 for the match, which will be shared on a 60-40 basis (for the winner and the loser)".

The Chinese Chess Association had evinced interest in a match with India two years ago, Mr. Koya said. "We had talked about the possibilities of the match then, at Udaipur. I feel now is the right time for India to take on China, as our players, like Krishnan Sasikiran, Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika, have really come on as strong players during the last couple of years".

Mr. Koya said China wouldn't be the only country that India would play in matches with. "The Hungarian Chess Federation has already agreed to play India. We are also looking at the possibilities of having matches with other major chess-playing nations".

He said such matches with strong teams like China and Hungary would be extremely beneficial for the Indian players. "Our players have often proved that they could compete with the best in the world in both the individual and team competitions. I'm sure they would become even better players after these matches."

It's not just the senior Indians who would appear in a match. India's sub-junior team will play a match with Singapore, Sri Lanka, Iran and Vietnam.

"Our sub-junior players don't get as much international exposure as they should," the AICF secretary said, "and I feel these matches would be a good opportunity for them".

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