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It’s been seven years since a chess participant acquired the Arjuna award and the enduring Viswanathan Anand is hoping that India’s triumphant marketing campaign on the on-line Chess Olympiad will change this when the nationwide sporting honours are introduced subsequent yr. In an interview to PTI after India gained the highest honours collectively with Russia on Sunday, Anand, a recipient of each the Arjuna and the Khel Ratna, mentioned award recognition is due for the game’s practitioners in India.
“I hope this will lead to all sorts of positive things including the reconsideration in the Sports Ministry of the Arjuna award and the Dronacharya awards for chess. It has been a long time,” mentioned the nation’s first Khel Ratna awardee, India’s highest sporting honour.
The final time a chess participant obtained the Arjuna was in 2013 when Abhijeet Gupta was bestowed the honour, whereas a chess coach has been given the Dronacharya simply twice — Raghunandan Vasant Gokhale (1986) and Koneru Ashok (2006).
“Sometimes you need to show that we are still there and I hope this results in positive impetus for many things,” Anand mentioned.
The five-time world champion was expectedly ecstatic concerning the triumph although he did not count on it after server malfunction led to 2 Indian losses, prompting an attraction from the workforce.
Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh misplaced within the second spherical of the finale as a consequence of disconnection and server malfunction.
“I didn’t anticipate this. I mean clearly the strongest argument in our favour was that this disconnection was not our fault. The rules are clear that if a team loses by disconnection, they forfeit the game.
“But on this specific case, it was shortly verified that the issue was not at our finish. So FIDE needed to contemplate that in our attraction,” he said.
The 50-year-old said he was waiting to be told of a rematch instead.
“I anticipated one thing alongside the traces of replaying the second match…You know the Russians could not have been pleased with this and there would have been discussions. I used to be anticipating a replay.
“I think then the FIDE opted for the other route, declared both as winners. Look these are teething problems. We are starting online chess, this will not be the last disconnection in online chess. I think this was a fair decision,” he mentioned.
The senior Indian males’s workforce comprised, other than Anand, Vidit Gujarati (captain), P. Harikrishna and Arvindh Chithambaram (reserves).
The senior ladies’s facet featured Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika, Bhakti Kulkarni and R. Vaishali.
“It is nice to write their co-tales as well,” Anand mentioned. Anand additionally mentioned that his efficiency within the occasion was not nice.
“I was able to rely on the team,” he defined.
He additionally mentioned it was a good suggestion to have a web-based Olympiad this yr as a substitute of suspending it amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The event was a pleasant surprise…The original decision was to move it to next year and then this good idea, I think, to have an online Olympiad. Any sport still has to function, you can’t postpone it by a year.
“I additionally commend their determination to improvise with the format. So as a substitute of the identical format, they acquired juniors and girls, made the occasion far more enjoyable to look at. It went actually properly.”
Lauding his teammates, Anand said each one of them clicked at some point.
“During the entire event each time I watched the opposite boards..some workforce member someplace had accomplished one thing…,” he said.
“Everyone clicked a minimum of in a single recreation. That actually labored to the energy of India that we’ve got such depth not solely in males, but additionally ladies, ladies, juniors.”
Asked if the tweaked format helped India, he said: “I believe in future it will likely be good for India if you happen to can double the variety of boards, for example to showcase our depth.
“Because we have so many good juniors, so many girls playing. Whether it particularly favoured us, I don’t know…nice thing is that if you are putting pressure on all six boards then you could feel someone or the other could click for us. Even when we had one setback, someone could rescue us.”
On whether or not it was a aware determination by him to sit down out the primary recreation of the ultimate, Anand mentioned he had expressed the need to play just one recreation.
“Yes, it was. I discussed with N Srinath (vice-captain) that I wanted to play only one game on the final day. Because I strongly felt that we had a good team. I thought we had to use that strength.
“You noticed with out me the workforce beat China and that outcome helped us rather a lot. So I used to be joyful to repeat that once more,” he quipped.
Promoted
The India-Russia ultimate was mentioned to be broadly adopted on-line with over 60,000 viewing it and there have been plenty of congratulatory messages flowing in afterwards, which Anand mentioned was a pleasing shock.
“Again, it’s peculiar to this yr that the entire chess world has type of moved on-line. It is a optimistic feeling particularly for this technology of children who’re a part of this profitable workforce.”
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