Aarthie to train under Vladimirov

CHENNAI, MAY 30. Aarthie Ramaswamy, the girls' under-18 world champion, was presented with a Wipro Voyager desktop computer by Mr. C.E. Sridhar, Vice-President (Operations), Wipro Technologies, at a function here on Tuesday.

At a press briefing later, Wipro, which had presented world beater P. Harikrishna with a laptop in Hyderabad, reiterated its support to chess in a big way.

Mr. P. Anirudh, Corporate Brand Manager, announced that the company is taking the two young champions under its wings. ``Wipro will sponsor the two high potential players - Aarthie and Harikrishna - for a period of three years. It will include training under international class coaches, travel to tournaments in India and abroad, participation fees and stay.

``To begin with the two will undergo intensive coaching under Evegeny Vladimirov, a super Grand Master and international coach from Kazakhstan. Vladimirov was Garry Kasparov's coach in the 80s. Coaching will take place in Bangalore from June 15 to July 14. There will also be specialised training in meditation and physical fitness.''

Simultaneously, Wipro will also be organising intensive coaching for 30 of the country's brightest young prospects in Kozhikode. ``The top three players in the girl's and boy's sections in the under-10, 12, 14, 16 categories and the under-18 champion along with M. Abhinav, Abhijit Gupta, V.K. Sindhu, Soumya Swaminathan and Tania Sachdev, medallists in the Asian championship in Teheran, will train under GM Maxime Sorokin of Argentina. Boarding and lodging has been arranged by us,'' said Mr. Anirudh, while adding that depending upon the response the company will make this a regular feature.

Mr. Murali Mohan, who was Aarthie's coach in the early days, and IM R.B. Ramesh, her present coach, spoke about the champion's attitude, aptitude and fighting qualities.

Aarthie, while thanking Wipro for its support, said after the National `A' in Mumbai commencing next week, she will prepare with Vladimirov in Bangalore and then leave for London for the British championships and Mind Sport Olympiad.

Speaking about the recent chess match-fixing scandal, Aarthie said, ``it is very sad. But it is very rare in chess.''

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