A move in quest of quality coaching

By P.K. Ajith Kumar

KOZHIKODE, JULY 13. Quality coaching has been a luxury for India's chess players. Not any longer. The All India Chess Federation (AICF) has chalked out a long-term strategy, with the backing of the Central Goverment, to make available the services of the world's top coaches to the Indian players prior to any major international tournament.

``We had approached the Central Goverment two years ago with this proposal. We are happy that we have been able to convince the Goverment about the need of high quality trainers for our players,'' the AICF secretary and FIDE (the world chess governing body) vice-president, Mr. P.T. Ummer Koya, told The Hindu here on Friday. ``And with the help from the software giant, Wipro, we would be able to get some of the best coaches in the world to train our players in all categories - senior and junior.''

In fact, the three-week camp for India's senior men and women for the forthcoming Asian chess championships begins here on Saturday. Kazakhstan Grandmaster Evgeny Vladimirov, who was a trainer of Garry Kasparov when he won his maiden World championship in 1985, is the coach in charge.

Tall, friendly and articulate, Vladimirov is a familiar - and popular - face for the Indians. He had coached them for the Olympiad, held in Istanbul last November. Though the duration of the camp was just 10 days at that time, the players had said that they had benefited a lot from the camp.

``I am looking forward to my second camp in Kozhikode,'' Vladimirov told The Hindu here on Friday. ``And I am happy that this year's camp is considerably longer than the last one. I am also looking forward to meet some new people, like Swati Ghate. Yes, I know she came second in India's men's National championship.''

Vladimirov, who is also a fine player still (he is the World No. 70), reached the city on Thursday after working with child prodigy Pendyala Harikrishna at Bangalore for a month. He said he was happy with the progress Harikrishna, who is sponsored by Wipro, was making. ``There is improvement not just in his Elo rating, but in his game as well,'' he added.

Last year's Vladimirov camp for the Indian team was followed by another one at Bangalore, where the former World No. 3. Valery Salov, who now lives in Spain, trained the players.

And the results of the two camps were there for all to see. The Indian men came up with their best ever performance at the Olympiad, finishing a highly-creditable eighth, and S. Vijayalakshmi won the silver medal on the top board in the women's event.

Argentine Grandmaster Maxim Sorokin was also in India last year as a coach, and he did his bit too, as Deep Sengupta, one of his trainees, won the World under-12 boys' championship in Spain. The Indian youngsters also did exceedingly well in the Asian championships.

Sorokin is back in India again, and is currently training the Indian junior players at Bangalore for the World and Asian championships, after a month-long stint in New Delhi. ``He would also be coaching the Indian team for this year's World youth championship to be held in Spain,'' Mr. Koya said.

``We are also planning to bring Salov for a camp sometime later in the year. Currently he is coaching the Chinese players and he has also shown interest to associate himself with the Indian players once again,'' he added.

India, which hosted the World chess championship last year, will be making a bid for this year's event too, according to the AICF secretary. Dubai, Germany and Macedonia are also in the race to host the championship.

``As Viswanathan Anand is the current champion, it would be great if he gets a chance to defend the title in his own country,'' said Mr. Koya, who had attended the recent General Assembly of the FIDE, which was held in Dubai from June 29 to July 1. ``The FIDE president, Mr. Kirsan Ilyuzhinov, told me that he would be happy to see the World championship coming back to India. He said he was impressed with last year's championship in Delhi.''

Mr. Koya said that India would be hosting the World championship only if it is allotted the entire event, unlike last year when Delhi hosted the men's tournament upto the semifinal state while the final was played in Teheran. (The women's World championship, though, was held completely in India). Mumbai, at the moment, looks the most likely venue if India gets the nod from FIDE.

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