TRIUMPHANT RETURN: R. Ashwath, S. Nitin, Swayams Mishra and Shyam Nikhil helped India win the gold in the World youth (under-16) chess Olympiad.
Chennai: The Indian team, which won the World youth (under-16) chess Olympiad, was given a fitting reception when they returned home from Singapore on Sunday.
“All our jokes about our team winning the gold became a reality at Singapore,” the 31-year-old K. Visweswaran, who trained the team prior to the camp in Chennai and continued coaching through internet for one hour a day, said.
For the first time the Indian players used the internet to train and make strategies for the team and it worked well.
“All over hotel rooms had wireless internet facility and we connected on skype to talk to our coach in Chennai,” S. Nitin of Salem said.
Formula of success
The reception included garlands and sweets.
The All India Chess Federation (AICF), led by D.V. Sundar, the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, led by Manuel Aaron, and the Chennai District Chess Association, led by K. Muralimohan and their officials, were present to receive and congratulate the players.
It appeared that the formula to success was the great team spirit these five boys showed and they shared a common vision to win the gold for India.
All the players worked towards winning the team gold, sacrificing their own chances of individual board gold medals, Visweswaran said.
Yet, Adhiban (bronze medal) on first board, Shyam Nikhil (silver medal) on the fourth and Swayams Mishra (bronze medal) on the fifth board won individual medals besides the team gold.
‘Demoralised’
“After the boys lost 1-3 to the Philippines in the seventh round, they were demoralised and locked themselves in their rooms. I took them out to the market to divert their mood,” A. Raizada of Union Bank of India, Lucknow, who went as the coach-cum- manager, said.
According to one parent who accompanied the team, the Indian manager saw one opponent of an Indian player wearing a cap and looking a little suspicious.
He followed him to the toilet during the game and hearing no noise of water, reported it to the arbiter that he could be receiving some external help.
“We were overconfident against the Philippines because three of them did not have ratings,” agreed the players as the reason for losing to the Philippines.
The Indian boys went sky-high after defeating the top seed Hungary in the fifth round by a 3.5-0.5 margin.
Here is the full story.
“He followed him to the toilet” That sounds funny. Why would anyone follow a chess player to the toilet? Isn’t that stalking a young chess player?
> Isn’t that stalking a young chess player?
No, then the article would have said: ‘He was frequently following him to the toilet’
The Indian kids were outplayed by the Filipino boys. No need for innuendos about toilet trips and cheating. Not to diminish their gold medal performance but the Indians simply had no answer for the Philippines’ IM Wesley So rated 2516, who is by far one of the strongest chess player under 14 in the world.
Two more norms and young Wesley will be one of the youngest GM’s ever, after having amassed nearly 200 ELO points in the last 12 months in strong tournaments, including the Torino Chess Olympiad, – fair and square.
The other boys in the Philippine contingent, although not FIDE-rated for one reason or another, are national, regional and world age-group champions in their own right.
The Indian chess delegation should have done their research, and should be civil enough as to publicly apologize to the Philippine youngsters and all chess fans without delay.
Joe
Hi all.THis is Swayams Mishra,from India,I played the youth OLypiad in Singapoer and was part of the indian team which won the gold.
I was shocked to see the toilet thing in the Post here & in the orginal website as i had witnessed no such thing and it was neither discussed among the players.
I want to clear all your doubts.
I agree that IM SO WEASLEY of Philipines outplayed our first board player.The toilet is was just told by the parent”Whose son lost to the unrated Philipines player.” just for the sake of an excuse.I was playing on the side board.I only won.All other’s lost..But the Philipines team were playing good even though they are unrated.2 of them are getting 2200+ rating in the next list. We did not play up to our mark(including me!) so we lost to them.Hope i cleared all your doubts.