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Journalism of Courage
Since Viswanathan Anand became Grandmaster in 1987, there’s been a deluge of Grandmasters in the country. As things stand right now, we have 10. And Ahmedabad-based Tejas Bakre, on his way to the Aeroflot Open International in Moscow today, is just four ELO points away from becoming number 11. Coming from a state not known for mind games, Bakre’s is a story of fighting against odds — not just an indifferent state association but also the field, which thought him easy pickings simply because he’s from Gujarat.
‘‘I continued because I knew, and my parents knew, that I could be a good player. Together, we formed ‘Team Bakre’ and worked on my game,’’ Bakre says. His mother Kamini adds, ‘‘He was very good at everything since he was a kid. Mind games, puzzles, etc. We didn’t know much about the game, so we had to get him a coach. We managed to find sub-junior player Suraj Dave, and things started seriously from there.’’
The performances started to show and soon it was a series of state and national titles, and then gold at the World Youth Championships in Moscow in 1998. Interestingly, at the Moscow meet, Anand was also invited to be awarded the Chess Oscar. Bakre and Anand chatted at length and lunched the next day. What Anand probably didn’t know at that stage is that Bakre would equal Anand’s record of two Asian Junior Championship golds within two years.
Since then, it’s been 2446 quickly-accumulated ELO ratings, just four away from the magic figure of 2500, which ‘‘would formalise things’’. ‘‘Right now I am concentrating on those four points. The bigger target is 2600 ratings and a chance to play some prestigious tournaments. Then there’s the dream of a world title, but that’s a long way away.’’
‘‘I am quite satisfied with the third GM Norm (after beating Russian GM Aleksander Poluljahov at the Gibtele.com Masters in Gibraltar last year) I earned recently,’’ he says. ‘‘It came a little late in my career but it’s what I had dreamt of.’’
His employers — Indian Airlines — have done their bit in giving him a leg up and ‘‘that’s been a great help, because travelling is totally taken care of,’’ Bakre says. The state government, however, remains true to form and are yet to give him the prize money of Rs 25,000 they announced when he became International Master in Mumbai in 2000 to add to the zero support extended down the years.
His time is limited because of strict office hours and academic pressures. But he still manages to ‘‘put in about three-four hours of practice a day, which is not enough’’. Had Bakre been from some of the more chess-friendly centres around the country, things might have been rosier. But things aren’t as bad as could have been and Moscow will most likely see him being formally crowned India’s latest Grandmaster.
