A second coming for the Kuntes

PUNE, April 7: Just yesterday, Prakash Kunte had walked into The Indian Express office to find out whether the list of Chhatrapati awarde...

PUNE, April 7: Just yesterday, Prakash Kunte had walked into The Indian Express office to find out whether the list of Chhatrapati awardees had been announced. The senior Kunte was optimistic about his 23-year-old son Abhijit being among the front-runners after his outstanding performance in 1997-98.

Abhijit pocketed his maiden chess National `A’ award in 1997 and followed it up with titles in the Asian Junior championship at Jaipur in October 1997, thereby bagging the first Grandmasters norm. With this, the then 21-year-old Puneite became the youngest winner of a GM norm, as well as only the third Indian after IM Ravi Kumar and Vishwanathan Anand to achieve the distinction of winning the Asian title after a 12-year for the country It was during this tournament that Abhijit was awarded the International Master title.

After attempting and missing by narrow margins for three months through Linares, Ubeda (Spain) and Calcutta, Abhijit finally got the second GM norm in march 1998, where he won it from the most difficult tourney — the category 10 GM tournament at Kozhikode. However, the period after the second norm has been a rough one for him, with the third and final norm before the GM title still eluding him.

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Many, including his employers — Indian Oil — feel that this is because of a surfeit of chess in the past one-and-a-half years. His disappointment, mirrored also on the face of his family, is evident. Though he played well in the GM tourney at Bangladesh last month, he fell behind due to a minor fault in the crucial round.

But it is these small moments which bring the greatest joys and help in taking off some pressure. And so, the Kunte family is out today to celebrate Abhijit’s achievement, in some famous city joint. And the happiest is Abhijit’s elder sister — Vibhavari, as it is because of her initiative that today there are two Chhatrapati awardees in the clan (Mrunalini won it in 1990-91). So guess who is footing the bill?

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