Roadside Grandmasters

Every evening as shops down their shutters, a footpath in a small alley flanked with shops, comes alive. People from all communities and of all ages ranging from 17 to 70 years, huddle over a battle of black and white mohras. The rook is still hathi to them. The knight is ghoda, bishop is udh, sipahis are pawns and the wazir and begum are king and queen.

8216;8216;You can call it rook or anything else, the game is still the same,8217;8217; says 70-year-old Gush Mohammed, one of the founders of the Footpath Chess Club. It was his and a few others8217; effort that got chess going not only in this locality but in the entire city. The secretary of the Gujarat State Chess Association Mayur Patel vouches for it.

8216;8216;We had nothing much to do those days so some of us decided to start playing chess here. Now people from different parts of the city too come here to play,8217;8217; says Gush Mohammed.

With Grandmaster-in-waiting Tejas Bakre, Gujarat has finally made its mark in the international chess scene. But those few players who have made a mark in the state and also played in the national scene in the late 8217;80s and and early 8217;90s are products of this roadside institution.

8216;8216;Gaurang Mehta, Prafull Mehta, Yusuf Shaikh, Nirav Rajsubha, Mayur Patel all played in the nationals at various levels have all learnt chess on this footpath,8217;8217; says Nisar Ahmed Shaikh, a contemporary of Gush Mohammed who manages to rope in sponsors whenever the club organises a competition. Among the younger players who have made a mark are Riyaz Khan a Gujarat University champion in 1997-98 and Meghal Shah U-13 state winner in 1998.

This footpath has also sown seeds of communal harmony in this divided city. Mirzapur is a Muslim-dominated area but when it comes to chess there was no stopping Prem Verma from coming here even during riots.

8216;8216;I have never thought twice before coming here,8217;8217; says Verma, a retired mechanical engineer in his late fifties who travels more than 20 kms everyday from Bopal to Mirzapur to play chess.

8216;8216;That8217;s the way it has been all these years. Hindus or Muslims, this footpath has welcomed everybody.8217;8217;

But changing times have imposed some restrictions. 8216;8216;The police don8217;t let us sit here too late in the night now,8217;8217; says Nazir Hussain, a garments dealer. 8216;8216;Earlier we would play till about 2 am but now the police starts blowing the whistle by about 11 pm,8217;8217; says Hussain. 8216;8216;The younger generation too doesn8217;t frequent this place as much as before,8217;8217; says Shahdab Yahidbhai Shaikh.

8216;8216;Earlier, there were very few options for chess players in the city. The footpath of Mirzapur was the only place where one could have learnt the basics of the game. Now with a couple of chess clubs coming up in the city, there are more options. Moreover, parents generally definitely think twice before sending their wards to sit on a footpath and play chess.8217;8217;

The players8217; arena is shrinking too. 8216;8216;There was enough space when we first started. But more business establishments have come up and eaten into our space,8217;8217; says Mohammed Hanif, who is known as the 8216;footpath champion8217;.

But despite all limitations, chess is still on the move here. At 6 pm there was just one board and about 10 people. A few hours later the crowd had swelled, two more boards had made an appearance and the battle cries grown more bloodthirsty. And Prem Verma had begun another round with the foothpath champion.