Team India talks of missing Anand

Anand gave different reasons at different times for skipping team events. First he said he would play for India if they qualified for the World Team Championship (for the continental champions). Then he said he did not approve of the format for the Olympiad. In between, he also announced he would play for India if chess became an Olympic sport. He has so far not explained why he did not want to play in the Asian Team Championship.

The reason is simple: He does not want to play for India in team competitions. Anand is one of the most popular players around the world and also a role model for the young generation in India. However, whenever they get to play in team competitions like the Olympiad or the Asian Team Championship, India have cut a sorry figure. This is where strong chess nations like Russia (in Olympiad) or China (Asian) have had a definite edbe over their rivals as their players have always stood by their teams.

Using Anand’s own argument (of India getting into the World Team Championship), there is a strong case for him to play here, if he is serious in his explanations, because that would have helped India’s cause.

If India win the title here, they get to play in the World Team Championship for the first time and then Anand can play for India.

Razak Trophy: Not much is known about the Asian Team Chess Championship. But talk to Hamid Majid, secretary of Malaysian Chess Federation and a regular visitor to India, you get a lot of information about the event. It was a biennial event to start with and it was Malaysia which instituted the trophy named after their former Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak in 1974. ‘‘It was a silver trophy,’’ says Majid, who is also an international arbiter.

‘ ‘From the mid-1990s, the event was held every four years. Malaysia staged the event five times.’’ Majid recalls a game between Anand and Ye Jiangchuan (China) in 1989 in Kuala Lumpur in the Asian team event in which the Indian sacrificed a Queen to defeat the Chinese Grandmaster.