Veni,vidi,vishy:Part IV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January, 1984 began with the much-awaited National ‘A’ Championship in Ahmedabad.  This was a round robin event with 16 rounds. 25-year-old Pravin Thipsay, an officer in Union Bank, Mumbai  won the title with 11.5 points out of 16.He was followed by Ravi Sekhar and Arun Vaidya with 10.5 points. The trio were unbeaten. Anand tied with Ravikumar for 4th-5th place with 9.5 points. He lost as many as four games (to Parameshwaran, Anil Kumar, Shard Tilak and Abdul Majeed) in his quest for victory. In the opinion of Manuel Aaron, he would have finished much higher but for his extremely rapid play.

The National Junior Championship that followed at the end of February was expected to be a race between Anand and Neeraj Kumar Mishra, another young talent. But he was shocked by D.V. Ravi in the 3rd round. Unfortunately, Mishra was also in poor form. This enabled Anand to regain the lead that he held till the end. He finished with a score of 7.5 points out of 9.

The event held in Goa was not without its moments of mirth. In one of the lower boards a player with a king and a queen was having a difficulty with defeating his opponent with a lone king. The game dragged on interminably to the amusement of the spectators when a crow flew into the tournament hall, and put a stop to it. Its droppings fell right over e4 and d5!

On another occasion the tournament hall was not opened for the adjourned session. So what did the boys do? They entered it through the window, as had an organizer on the previous day! And they were taken to task.

In June 1984 Anand faced his first international test. He represented India in the World Cadet (U-16) Championship in  Champigny, France.His team mate was Ms Archana Kotwal who was supposed to play in the section for girls.But by the time she reached France, she was no longer under sixteen and could not play having traveled all the way. They were accompanied IM Pravin Thipsay, the National Champion.In those days travel abroad for Indian players was not easy. Sponsorship was hard to come by and all kinds of bureaucratic hurdles would be in the way of an aspiring player. So the trio reached Paris at 1:30 hours on the day of the tournament. Fortunately, it did not affect Anand's performance in the early rounds. In the 5th round he was afflicted by a fever that could not be put down by medicine. Subsequently it was discovered that he had jaundice. From the 6th round he drew every game except the 9th which he won. The championship was won by Alexei Dreev with 8.5 points. Anand shared 2-4th place with  Jeroen Piket and Vassily Ivanchuk, trailing half a point behind. If only he had been fit!

In August he traveled to Kiljava, Finland to participate in the World Junior Championship.This was a far from happy experience.He lost as many as 4 games(to Kiril Georgiev, Patrick Wolff, S.A.Sayeed and L.Sandstrom) The event was won by the Danish IM Curt Hansen with 10.5 points. Anand trailed far behind, with 7.5 points to tie for 10th-15th place.Tough learning!

In September there followed the trip to Great Britain.He won the Lloyds Bank Under-21 Invitation Tournament, scoring 8.5 points out of 10. This was a 10-round rapid event with 55 players. He also took part in a 6-round City Quick Play Tournament (30 minutes on the clock). The competition was jointly won by Mark Hebden and Keith Akell who scored 6/6. Anand tied for 3-6th place after losing a game to Hebden. Then came the premier event of Lloyds Bank Tournament. British grandmaster John Nunn, 29, took the trophy on tie break from Boris Spassky, former world champion, scoring 7.5 points out of nine. Nunn’s compatriots, GM Tony Miles and Murray Chandler along with American IM Sergei Kudrin scored 7 points. This tournament was a 9-round Swiss with 146 players from 27 countries. 14-year-old Anand was the youngest in this strong field. He shared 6th-10th place with GMs Jonathan Speelman, Nigel Short, FM Zuger and Hunerkopf, all on 6.5 points. His only loss was to Murray Chandler. It was in this tournament that he made his first IM norm.

On his return to India, once again he participated in the National Subjunior Championship held in Delhi. As expected, this competition was a cakewalk for him. He played with effortless ease, conceding a solitary draw and winning all other games. His final score was 8.5 points out of nine.

Anand was the hot favourite to win the Asian Junior Championship held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu in October.He almost did not make it. K.V.Perera, a new talent from Sri Lanka was in the race. After 3 rounds both Anand and Perera had 3/3. In the 4th round Perera outplayed his fancied rival.Then both players matched victory for victory round after round. According to the rules if there was a tie for first, the individual encounter of the tied players decided. Thus Perera was in the driver’s seat, he could lose a point and still be first. In the 7th round Anand was held to a draw by Australia’s Mathew Drummond.On hearing the glad tidings Perera made his first mistake in the championship.He offered a draw in a nearly won position to his opponent, M.M.Khan of Bangla Desh. Unfortunately, in the penultimate round he had an upset. He lost to Neeraj Kumar Mishra of India. Now Perera and Anand were level once again. If it could continue in the last round Perera could still win the title.But it was not to be. In a good position with 2 extra pawns Perera allowed K.H.Soh to draw by perpetual check. Anand made no mistake winning his last round game.  So Anand was first with 7.5 points out of nine, and Perera second with 7.

In Thessaloniki Olympiad Anand  had the honour of representing India on the 4th Board, (behind Pravin Thipsay, Raja Ravisekhar and Arun Vaidya playing on the top boards) He made his second IM norm, scoring 7.5 points out of 11.

 

To be continued

(Courtesy:Chess Mate magazine,India)

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