The Hindu : Sport / Chess : A crucial and positive move

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Wednesday, Dec 26, 2007
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A crucial and positive move

P.K. Ajith Kumar

KOZHIKODE: The All India Chess Federation (AICF) took a few decisions at its central council meeting in Chennai on Friday. One of those decisions would have a big — and positive — impact on the way India performs at the Olympiads, the Davis Cup of chess.

The AICF has decided to select the Indian team for the Olympiads based on the rating list of FIDE. In fact, this is something the AICF should have done long, long ago. Up until now, the Indian teams for the Olympiads were picked purely on the basis of the performances at the National ‘A’ championships: the top finishers make the squad (along with a few seeded players like World champion Viswanathan Anand). That is a bit like selecting Indian cricket team based solely on Challenger Trophy; pick the players with the best batting and bowling averages and leave out even a proven performer just because he was going through a bad patch or couldn’t play in the tournament because he was nursing an injury.

Unscientific method

One doesn’t have to look back into the distant past to see the disadvantages of the unscientific way of selecting the National team for the Chess Olympiad. Just take a look at the women’s team India would have fielded at the Olympiad to be held in Dresden, Germany, next year. The team led by Koneru Humpy (the World No. 2 is an automatic selection and doesn’t have to qualify from the National women’s ‘A’) would have comprised Tania Sachdev, Kiran Monisha Mohanty, Soumya Swaminathan and Swati Ghate. Which means India would have fielded a team without two of the only three players it has in the World’s top twenty — Dronavalli Harika (who has a rating of 2480) and S. Vijayalakshmi (2464).

While not many would have questioned the credentials of Tania, the reigning Asian champion and the most improved player in Indian women’s chess at the moment, and the vastly experienced Swati, it’s not easy to see Kiran (2263) and Soumya (2244) — with due respect to them and they both are very promising youngsters — as better options than Vijayalakshmi and Harika to represent India.

Harika had finished fifth at the National women’s ‘A’ at Pune, while Vijayalakshmi, the winner of two individual medals at the Olympiad, had opted out because of personal reasons. It was the prospects of sending the weakest Indian women’s team for the Olympiad that forced the AICF to change the selection criterion.

It is only prudent to select the National team based on FIDE rankings. And that rating list is a reflection of a player’s form. The Indian team for the Dresden Olympiad will be based on the April 2008 list.

Of course Kiran, Soumya and Swati have reasons to feel upset, because when they played at the National women’s ‘A’ at Pune. But, sometimes, a few people have to pay a price for the larger interest of the country. And, yes, who is saying that they can’t make the Olympiad teams in the future by improving their ratings?

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