They are a group of high-flying teenagers with many travel miles to their names - their passports stamped with many colorfully exotic and mundane destinations. Inside the hall in which they play,as well as inside their heads though,their focus unfailingly and uniformly zooms in on black and white squares,with little distraction of the outdoors. Chess players may seem to lead pretty mono-toned (or di-toned,at best) lives,but a group of youngsters amongst them are now opening up on what goes on in their minds - all the stray thoughts,and resolutely focussed ones - with one of the first chess blogs - chessace.blogspot.in. Started by Mumbai's GM-norm holder Prasanna Rao and another teenaged chess buff and player K Priyadarshan,the idea of chessace came up during a series of tweets he exchanged with his Chennai-based buddy. "I was talking to my friend on twitter,he was writing his own blog,so we just decided to start a combined blog. But there would be time issues since we travel and compete,so we needed more people to contribute content,plus a bit of diversity," Prasanna says,adding that the two went about enlisting writers. "I went for handling the Maharastra people,and he went for the Tamil Nadu people," says the chess player,who tapped into his chess network of six-seven years and had the blog running within four days of his first brainwave. "Everyone agreed pretty fast and we were enthusiastic as well. The response was unexpected with some 3000 hits on the first day itself," he says. Though amateurish - and it's only a blog - chessace has brought together some of the most exciting young chess brains from the country including Vidit S Gujrathi and Ashwin Jayaram with varying ELO-rating points,all mentored by RB Ramesh,winner of two National B Champiosnhips as well as Commonwealth chess champ in 2007 and British Chess Championship medallist. "He's our mentor and one of the best coaches in India," Prasanna,one of the co-ordinators of this endeavour says,adding that Ramesh cracks the whip on the deadlines as well as helping tweak the wordplay. What gives you a peek into what's simmering in those chess brains is the chosen topics to discuss and occasionally indulgently ramble on. There are posts on schools of Russian chess,and on the philosophy of the game as well as some colourful profiles of some of the most exciting international GMs making waves currently. An interesting entry recently by Arun Kartik draws an engrossing parallel between Alexander Petrov's composition and the Battle of Berezina,where the French army of Napoleon,retreating after his invasion of Russia and crossing Belarus fought off Russian armies under Mikhail Kutuzov,Peter Wittgenstein and Admiral Pavel Chichagov. Chess,deliciously complicated and transposed to fantastical metaphors. "We have agreed to write on anything,but we have to be true to the chess community also. So we have decided 50-50," Prasanna says,happy that they have over 20 posts per month now. The response from the non-chess fraternity too has been encouraging. "We had agreed in the first month if we cross 1000 hits,we will continue. We travel a lot so we have lot of friends from other countries. They may write for us too as guest authors," he says. It wasn't as tough as he had anticipated - getting his usually reticent chess mates to open up. "Chess players are usually reserved and dont talk much. But they know the mess in a chess players' head. So,we connect!" he laughs. The blog also routinely gets the chess teens talking on other sports - whether it was the Euro football final or Federer's Wimbledon resurgence. "We get a good mix,and you'll notice most chess players make for very opinionated sports commentators," he adds. This coming month will see the bunch of them covering some foreign tournaments. "I am going to Spain on Wednesday,Deepan,Vidit are already in USA,Ashwin is in Greece," he says,adding that the upcoming chess quiz and 2012 Olympiad will make it an interesting web page to refresh. The blog's not not very scholarly,or overflowing with expertise,neither a forum for purists who look for depth of analysis of chess games across the world. But it's a good release for teenaged chess brains to pen down thoughts in their spare hours. So,will Vishy Anand ever be a guest author? "Not so early,but will try," he says,with a pause followed by a pragmatic: "To be realistic,no. It'll be tough to get him to write."
