The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Girish recounts his terrific feat

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Wednesday, Nov 01, 2006
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Girish recounts his terrific feat

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The journey to the World under-10 chess title has been a long and arduous one for Mysore youngster Girish Koushik.

The first step, as told by the young champion, began by road from Mysore to Bangalore. Then by train to Delhi. From there his escort till Delhi, his father Arun Koushik had to say farewell. Girish then boarded a flight to Istanbul which took him eleven hours, emplaned for Georgia for another two hour flight and then by road to the venue of the event.

Once at the venue, the unescorted boy got down to the brass tacks of playing the tournament and after his sixth straight win in the championship nursed hopes of bagging the title. That young Girish won with a round to spare, speaks volumes of his talents.

Girish started playing chess at the tender age of three and a half. He learnt the initial moves from his father, a former university-level chess player. Girish announced his arrival on the chess scene winning the gold at the Asian under-8 tournament held at Delhi and has been on a winning spree since then. Undisputed district champion at Mysore. A top-ten finisher in the 2004 under-nine championship and above all a fourth-place finisher in the Senior National championship in 2006 are only some of the boy's achievements.

The St. Thomas School, Mysore student became the first boy from Karnataka to win a World title.

Speaking to the press at a felicitation got up at the Hockey Stadium, Girish recounted that he was a little scared when he embarked on his journey. Travelling alone — the cost was prohibitively expensive for an escort — Girish became excited at his first visit to a foreign country.

Though he missed the crackers and festivities at Diwali and endured eating just hard bread and drinking milk at Georgia, winning the title has been well worth the trouble.

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