The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Hari Krishna faces sponsorship trouble

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006

Sport

Sport - Chess

Hari Krishna faces sponsorship trouble

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: For Grandmaster Pentyala Hari Krishna, the master of 64-squares, it is back to square one as far as sponsorship is concerned. With the annual sponsorship from the Gas Authority of India Ltd. having already expired in March 2006, in all probability he will have to launch efforts again to either request the GAIL to extend the sponsorship or look for a new one.

Hari Krishna, who returned to Hyderabad after being crowned the World junior rapid chess champion last week, is perplexed at the way things are going right now. "I didn't expect this at a time when I should be concentrating more on chess,'' said the disappointed player. At a time when he would prefer to be celebrating his latest achievement, he has had to shift his focus towards getting sponsorship to take care of his future programmes.

But to his delight, when Hari Krishna broached the subject of at least getting financial assistance for hiring the services of GM Elizbar Ubilava, the Principal Secretary to State Government J.R. Anand and G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, SAAP VC & MD, responded positively.

"That should not be a problem and we will also write to the GAIL authorities to extend your sponsorship at this crucial phase of your career," they told Hari.

A decision (in principle) has been taken, to sanction Rs. 2.50 lakh needed by Hari to hire Ubilava. Hari Krishna attributes his recent successes to the long coaching camps with Ubilava, who was a former `second' to Viswanathan Anand.

Dream

"The best aspect about Ubilava is that he knows the strengths of Indian players and tries to work on them besides focussing on eliminating simple errors in various combinations," said Hari Krishna. "I am really comfortable with him and I desperately need his services to realise my dream to be the first Asian Games gold medallist in the Doha Games this December," added Hari.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport