‘Best play’ for city’s latent talent

Chess is finding its way to the hinterlands, bringing hope of a better way of life, to students of government schools

When D Gukesh, 18, became the youngest world champion in chess history last week, the name Velammal chimed constantly. It was, after all, the school in Chennai where Gukesh first learnt the intricacies of the game. The Velammal group has been a thriving sanctuary for chess players, producing a whopping 22 of the 85 Indian Grandmasters to date.

Sadly, such examples are more an exception than the norm. A school education policy that incentivises sports is still far fetched, and even if present, is restricted to elite privately run institutions such as Velammal.

It is this anomaly that the William D Pichamuthu (WDP) Inclusive Chess Initiative, based out of Bengaluru is trying to correct in a small way. After hosting an open chess tournament for juniors for years now, the WDP group conducted a talent search among government high school children in 2024.

The 20-odd best players from across Bengaluru Urban district competed at a grand finale in November at the YMCA. These players will now participate at an Open tournament in January 2025 where they will test themselves against more accomplished practitioners.

The empathy for children from the lower strata of society flows from William Pichamuthu himself who worked as a municipal school headmaster in Dobbaballapur, Sagar, Holenarsipur, K.R. Nagar and Nelamangala. Of immense support to this endeavour has been Karnataka’s K Sai Prakash, one of the earliest National junior chess champions in India, who won the title in 1972.

“Private and international schools have full-time chess coaches, but there is no one to tend to government schools,” says Sai, now 70, but still agile. He founded Erin Foundation, an NGO based in Anekal which has chess promotion among its activities, and also runs informal CSR groups having once been the CSP convener for CII Karnataka.

“At a recent chess tournament conducted by the SGFI (School Games Federation of India), out of 10 top-ranking players, only one was from a government school. We thought, given the opportunity, they may not produce grandmasters, but chess is not our business here. The idea is to use chess to develop concentration and discipline. Hopefully, these children will participate in the open tournaments and once they start winning there, they will be able to take care of themselves,” Sai adds.