Chess in India
No one here gives a shit about chess ... to put it mildly.
Which is really really sad - if you look at the quality of players India boasts about , and the training and preparation that they (dont) get , it is a remarkable achievement.
You have kids getting trained from age 4 or so in most of the former soviet republics - in a very disciplined way , you have innumerable clubs , tournaments , events across Europe ditto for US.
And India ? Almost no one seems to be interested !
Can you ever imagine our president or prime minister raising an issue like this for any of our players ?
It will be 'xyz who ?' where xyz == Anand/Humpy/Deepan/Sasikiran/etc.
You have to really give it to the chess players in India - they succeed inspite of their circumstances , not 'cos of it !
Here is a blog I found which gives news about chess in India : http://indiangm.blogspot.com/
The most popular game in this country is one which is played by least number of counteries , is a colonial hangover , and even at which we suck in comparison with the best !
Ok , that rant about cricket might be uncalled for ... but I find it really frustrating when people are so obsessed with it even when we are so lousy at it in comparison !
Which is really really sad - if you look at the quality of players India boasts about , and the training and preparation that they (dont) get , it is a remarkable achievement.
You have kids getting trained from age 4 or so in most of the former soviet republics - in a very disciplined way , you have innumerable clubs , tournaments , events across Europe ditto for US.
And India ? Almost no one seems to be interested !
Can you ever imagine our president or prime minister raising an issue like this for any of our players ?
It will be 'xyz who ?' where xyz == Anand/Humpy/Deepan/Sasikiran/etc.
You have to really give it to the chess players in India - they succeed inspite of their circumstances , not 'cos of it !
Here is a blog I found which gives news about chess in India : http://indiangm.blogspot.com/
The most popular game in this country is one which is played by least number of counteries , is a colonial hangover , and even at which we suck in comparison with the best !
Ok , that rant about cricket might be uncalled for ... but I find it really frustrating when people are so obsessed with it even when we are so lousy at it in comparison !
posted by Mridul at 12:55 AM
4 comments
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4 Comments:
I totally agree. I think that Vishy Anand is greatly under-represented in the Indian media, govt. et al. His performance has been phenomenal.
On the other hand we have these paper tigers, pilers of multiple records in cricket, but can't win games that matter, but are lionized by the media.
For the love of chess lets form a 'Chess Terrorist' outfit. We'll vioalte the countries pitches with checkered markings. This should give the cricket players a tough time in concentrating on their game.
Cricket bats are a waste of willow, just imagine the armies we could carve out of one bat!
viva la revolucion!
@ Vinay
Very very true , this is a point I repeatedly raise in most of my discussions with cricket fanatic friends.
It is not that I hate the game (well , the scams did leave a very bad taste in the mouth inspite of the coverups) , but there is no sense of propotion when it comes to it.
Sports where we are remarkable in , like chess - we dont even get too much attention in the media !
As a simple example , just look at the sponsership of most of the international cricket team members from India , and vishy anand (I guess just a couple or so !)
It is sad state indeed.
@ guru
Interesting idea - we will checker their pitches and mate them :-P
Poda poda :-)
The "problem" with chess, of course, is that it does not have the visual appeal of a sport. There is nothing visually different between a bad move and a great move. This naturally subtracts from it's potential as a spectator "sport". And eyeballs and spectators are what the media and sponsors care for.
It is somewhat harder to explain why hockey is not raved about for example (of course, it's partly because the hockey team isn't going anywhere.)
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