The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Russian Grandmaster to help chess stars sharpen skills

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Russian Grandmaster to help chess stars sharpen skills

V. V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD: It is a fusion of minds! Russian Grandmaster Evegeny Romanov, who was once part of the trainers' team to former world champion Anatoly Karpov, is in the city to share invaluable thoughts on the game with the cream of Indian chess including Super GM Krishnan Sasikiran, World No. 2 Koneru Humpy, GM Neelotpal Das and potential world champion Padmini Rout.

For Humpy, the timing of the two-week camp, organised for the ONGC players at the instance of IM Lanka Ravi, could not have been better timed for Koneru Humpy who is preparing for the World Championship later this year. “It should be very interesting and definitely a learning experience. Any training camp at this level is bound to throw up new ideas,” says Humpy.

For his part, Romanov, who was also the former World under-10 champion himself, says that is not going to be easy for any one to be a world champion. “The talent can be there but you need to really work hard,” he pointed out. No wonder that he had chalked out a strenuous daily schedule of eight hours on the 64 squares for the ONGC chess stars now.

“I will definitely try to give back something which I picked up during my stint with the great Karpov in 2008,” says the articulate Romanov. “It is amazing that India has such abundance of talent and a lot of credit goes to the great Anand (Viswanathan),” says the Russian GM.

“Essentially during the camp we try to look for innovations in many aspects of the game since many of them have vast playing experience already,” says the 22-year-old Russian trainer on his first visit to India. Romanov insists that at this level players like Sasikiran and Humpy need not be told what they should do. “The whole camp is an interactive programme wherein we try to exchange various game-plans arising in a given situation on the board,” he said.

The philosophy of Romanov is simple -- try to pick the best features of all great players and try to master them to be much better players yourselves. “I am a big fan of Karpov for I had not seen anyone come up with stunning alternatives for any moves on the chess board with such speed. A truly wonderful player,” says the big fan of the former world champion.

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