The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Indians likely to dominate

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Wednesday, Nov 08, 2006
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Indians likely to dominate

Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI: Allot any continental chess meet to India and the field is bound to resemble the country's National championship with some foreign flavour.

On the eve of the Asian junior championship, the picture is no different. The presence of home challengers in the boys' and girls' sections is overwhelming. The token overseas representation, without China, also indicates that India can win at least four out of the six medals at stake.

By Tuesday evening, out of 32 provisional entries in the girls' section, 21 were Indians. Among the 57 boys, 43 entries are from India. And given the depth of talent in the field, an Indian domination is a foregone conclusion.

Hot contender

India's anticipated domination could well have been a possible monopoly of the medals in the boys' section but for Vietnam's Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. The 16-year-old, who became a GM in 2004 and went on to win Vietnam's "Athlete of the Year" Award, is the hottest contender for the boys' gold.

Rated at 2534, Truong Son recently claimed the bronze in the World under-16 section at Batumi (Georgia) where he was tipped to win the title. His progress has been very impressive since winning the Asian under-10 championship in 2000 and the Asian under-12 title in 2001.

The host would obviously like to retain the gold won by S. Arun Prasad when the last edition was held at Bikaner in December 2004. G. Rohit, G.N. Gopal, Deep Sengupta, Ashwin Jayaram and Arun Prasad are the Indian prospects in the medal race.

With Turkmenistan, Philippines, Pakistan and Kazakhstan keeping the organisers in suspense, lone contenders from Vietnam, Iran, Uzbekistan and Nepal, in addition to two from Japan and six from Sri Lanka give the field the desperately needed international look.

The winner, in each section, not only gains the title of International Master/Woman International Master, without rating consideration, but also gets a 9-game Grandmaster/Woman Grandmaster norm.

Among the girls, defending champion Vietnam's Hoang Thi Bao Tram will try and prevent an Indian sweep. Though the absence of Iran's Atousa Pourkashiyan should make it easier for the host, much will depend on the form of the Indians.

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