Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Winning ways
|
Winning a gold in the World Railway chess championship in Slovakia recently ushers a new chapter in P.D.S. Girinath's career
|
HYDERABAD'S FIRST International Master P.D.S. Girinath re-discovered his winning ways with a gold in the World Railway chess championship in Slovakia last week. This triumph may not necessarily create waves in the chess circles, but personally it could not have come at a more appropriate time for the unobtrusive player with an ELO rating of 2,406.
Girinath led the Indian Railways team comprising Suvrajit Saha, Saptarshi Roy Choudhary, Gurpreetpal Singh, Nasir Wajih, K. Ratnakaran and V. Kamble to team gold. What is more significant is that the Indian team won the gold in team event, Girinath picked the open event and also the top board prize, in their very first appearance in the championship where 22 teams participated.
Girinath says it was not all that easy outing for the Indian players as the competition also saw a couple of Grandmasters and several IMs with ELO ratings of 2,500-plus in the fray. What does this title mean to him? "Being an international title, this should definitely enhance my confidence level. It also shows that with adequate preparations, there is a lot of scope for improved performances at the higher level," explains Girinath.
The 34-year-old South Central Railway employee says that the timing of the World Railway gold was significant personally for him since it came ahead of the Grandmasters Open event in Delhi next January. "With the FIDE conferring the IM title officially recently, my next target is to get the coveted GM title. Amidst this backdrop, things look good for me," says the unassuming chess player who fought with adversity to come out of a six-month mental and physical trauma after the ghastly road accident near Bhubaneshwar in 2001 which saw five young talent from the State perish in it. "It was a big blow to me personally. For, I was accompanying them as a coach. That stigma always haunts me ," says a pensive Girinath.
Unlike many players with lesser achievements, Girinath generally is a player who loves to maintain a low profile. For someone who won the 1988 National under-19 championship and was joint-winner in the National under-25 edition of 1992, it is an open secret that he never really lived up to the abundance of promise he had shown in the early years. The 1998 joint-winner in the National `B' championship feels that the Slovakia Railway title should hopefully usher in a new chapter in his otherwise simple career dotted with occasional notes of title-triumphs.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
