HYDERABAD: Her mite may have been a drop in the ocean. Deepika Kuchipudi's prize money earnings from the 2004 National under-7 chess championships at Kozhikode didn't find bank managers chasing her for a deposit. She chose, however, to donate it to the Khammam District Collector, Rajendra Narendra Nimje.

Her contribution paled before the scale of destruction the tsunami left behind. The money, she nonetheless hoped, would help others come to grips with the tragedy, just as she was grappling with an equally earth-shattering event in her life — the death of her mother Shobha a few months earlier.

Word of her passing came halfway through an Andhra Pradesh State chess tournament at Vuyyur, Krishna district. For some time, she avoided the game she loved, taught by her father Johnson Babu. Grief gradually gave way to grit.

For Christmas that year, she chose to shut out memories of the festival by immersing herself in the competition at Kozhikode. Pitting her wits against some of the sharpest in the land, she earned six points from nine rounds.

Proving her mettle

While the loss of her mother was depressing, she didn't let that death defeat her. The valiant lass proved her mettle time and again, finishing among the top ten in half a dozen State and National tournaments. Her highpoint came at New Delhi, last December.

In the Asian youth championship, Deepika clinched 5.5 points to finish seventh. That performance held out promise, for there were many older players in the fray. Training by R. Amarnath had held her in good stead.

With the World youth chess championships slated in mid-October at Batumi, Georgia, Deepika has hit a hurdle, hard to skip over. With time ticking, the awesome burden of raising 4000 euros for her participation has fallen on her bank employee father, a task he seems quite unequal to.

Now it remains to be seen whether this budding talent will bloom or be swept away by the tide of odds before her?

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