The game of chess played across 64 squares is increasing in popularity across the world and more so in India. In India, it has gained pace and there are currently 85 Grandmasters, 124 International Masters (IM); 23 Woman Grand masters (WGM), including some who also hold the higher IM title; and 42 Woman International Masters (WIM) as of May 2023, according to FIDE, the International Chess Federation. That makes India a superpower in the sport. And importantly in Goa, there are 2 Gm, 1 WGm and 6 IM which is remarkable for the state of its size.
The world celebrates International Chess Day today, July 20 as the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded in 1924. The idea to celebrate this day as the international chess day was proposed by UNESCO, and it has been celebrated as such since 1966 after it was established by FIDE. FIDE, which has 181 chess federations as its members, organizes chess events and competitions around the world on this day.
For a state the size of Goa, the performance of its chess players in the sport has been special to put it mildly. Goa has at present 2 Gm, 1 WGM and 6 IM. That is fantastic given around the population of 16 lakhs. The spread of chess in the State has been the handiwork of the Goa Chess Association. It decided to go into the student community and promote the game.
Mahesh Candolkar, President of the Goa Chess Association says they would keep organising chess tournaments through the year. He says they will be having a u-9 selection tournament in Ponda this weekend. He says, “We conduct several tournaments. Another tournament will be held in Panjim soon. The State championship will be held in Margao from July 24 and will go over five days. Importantly, we conduct chess in schools at taluka level. There will be one in Tiswadi on Monday. We are conducting coaching in classes 3 and 4 all over Goa. The government is helping us by paying for the coaches who are allocated to every taluka. This has certainly helped in popularising the sport.”
To ensure that such initiatives are successful on the ground, it is important to have people who are motivated to spread the news. Shirish Pandurang Divkar is a one-man-army who is deeply passionate about his sport. A former teacher who took VRS to promote chess, he is certainly one of a kind. Associated with the Lions Club of Tivim, he is the chairperson for the promotion of chess. He says, “Along with Ashwini Kumar Karpe, we promote chess in the whole of Bardez. We selected 15 schools and we focused on the government schools. Reason being they were not the focus of anyone's attention when anything was launched. Students in Class 5 were coached for four days for three hours. Every year, we conduct tournaments among these 15 schools. The schools select 4 students each and they are sent to this tournament. The prize money is Rs 10,000. We also give chess boards to needy students in these schools. Each of these schools received five boards each. We use the scheme called Chess in schools promoted by the India Chess Association. They have provided a coach for every two schools in each district. The coach provides the training. This scheme is being promoted all over the country”.
He says under this scheme, they were training students in Class 3 and 4 and promoting chess. This had started in 2013 and he personally trained around 3500 students in ten years. According to him, the talent in the state was very good. His intention when he started was to focus on reducing the high dropout rate in the government schools. He says exposing them to chess helped them and many were now passing the exams.
For one of those students involved in the training, it has been an interesting experience. Gemma Fernandes is the mother of Vicente Fernandes, who has represented his school at the taluka level. She however says now due to the demands of his studies, he has now taken it a little more lightly. However, he would still practise online and as a student now in Class 11, he is now looking at higher honors. He was part of the school that came second in the State championships last year for which he was playing for the past five or six years. He took formal training for a period of two years but then stopped. She says her daughter was first interested and he went with her to a tournament and got fascinated by the sport and took it up. The sport increased his concentration and he loves it. He hopes to represent his school at the State level and hopefully becomes champions.
For Bhakti Kulkarni, the WGM in the State, it has been quite a ride. Speaking about how she got into the game she says, “My father, Pradip Kulkarni, introduced me to this beautiful game when I was just 2.5 years old. The Goa Chess Association has been doing a really great job in terms of organising various chess events on state, national and international level all these years, which helped us get good playing practice. Currently, I am training for my nationals and international events in the coming future. My world ranking is 80th at the moment so I would be focusing on improving it as well. But when I won my first medal (Bronze) for Goa at the National under-7 girls, all of us thought we could do a career in this. That’s how we started taking every chess tournament seriously. And by god's grace I met all the good supporting people at the right time.”
When the young Ethan Vaz was asked how he got introduced to the sport. His father replies, "Ethan was introduced to chess when he was six years of age, when his mother brought home a chess set. Ethan says he got interested in the game because of the way in which the pieces move. After a few fun games, it was probably the desire to win against his brother and his parents that got him hooked up.”
Now undoubtedly one of the hottest players in the country and the youngest international master (IM) in the world, when asked what his future plans were, his father says, “His short-term goal is to become a Grandmaster (GM) and then build up his strength further to become a Super GM. His dream is to become the World Champion."
He however expressed concern over the paucity of funds. His father says, “Currently, I am not happy that we have to slow down because of financial reasons. If he can get enough sponsorship, he can play more tournaments and get more advanced coaching." When asked what the Chess association of Goa was doing to help Ethan, he says, “Goa Chess Association has been instrumental in his early chess career, as participating in the local tournaments organised under the aegis of GCA helped him become stronger. The GCA team understands our financial struggles and has made efforts to seek financial support for me. We continue to hope that support will come from the government and from corporate sponsors, so that he can fast track his efforts of becoming a Grandmaster."
It is a sport that is played in silence that masks the deadly intentions of the players. One can only hope the players of Goa strike it rich in future and help make a name for themselves, the state and the country.