World title, next target for Sindhu

The gold-winning effort marked Sindhu’s meteoric rise to stardom after being a lesser known player in the district circuit for the last four years.

“I am really thrilled to win the Asian crown. Now my immediate goal is to go for the World title in Oropesa (Spain),” was the confident response from the diminutive fifth-standard student of Dolphin Public School.

Her convincing performance in scoring seven out of seven spoke volumes of the stuff she is made of. Pitted against a highly competitive field, she never lost her cool and her crucial 45-move seventh round win against the Chinese player B Jing tipped the scales in her favour.

She needed just two draws for the honours from the remaining two rounds of the league, and she did just that.

Though she had couple of titles under her belt, her talent came to the fore when she outsmarted the Macedonian GM Toni Najdoski in the Commonwealth Chess Championships in Sangli in February, and her confidence got a major boost.

The silver medal-finish earlier in the National under-10 championship in Aurangabad in December 1999, the champion being Dronavalli Harik (AP), had earned her the berth for this trip.

“I am happy. But it is no surprise as she was on the threshold for the last two years and now the time has come,” said Sindhu’s coach and former National champion Raja Ravisekhar from Bangalore when contacted over phone.

Madurai District Chess Association, as announced earlier, had offered a cash award of Rs 5000 for the champion.

Born in a family of chess enthusiasts, Kanagavel, her father, a chief accounts officer in the State Transport Corporation, and her brother VKV Sudhan, who is also a well-known district chess player with an Elo rating of 2085, helped her gain chess knowledge.

“I was confident that she would come out with flying colours after her impressive 29-move first round win over Vietnam’s Mai,” said Kanagavel, who had accompanied Sindhu, and added: “There was nothing to choose between players regarding the standards though competitors from Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Iran and China were hard to beat.”

Kanagavel was contemplating a trip to Spain, which may cost a fortune. “It is good that she had become a champion, but it is harder to maintain the tempo. She should work hard to achieve greater goals,” said her brother Sudhan.

“Her enthusiasm while playing is extraordinary and that has helped her in good stead,” said Ravisekhar.

She is a Queen-pawn player and on the black side, loves playing the French Defence. She is also very strong in the middle-game with an extraordinary positional understanding for her age.

“She never goes by the names and wants to assert her supremacy on the board. She practices for a minimum of three to four hours a day. Her hasty moves at times had landed her in troubles resulting in failures,” said Ravisekhar.

Whenever she is in Madurai, she learns the theoretical part of the game from another district player BT Sethuraman.

“We are really proud to have groomed an Asian champion. She has the talent to surpass many such feats,” said AR Ramanathan, Correspondent, Dolphin Public School.

Much credit for her achievement should also go to the strong functioning of the Madurai District Chess Association, which has created a chess boom in the city. With at least 20 championships on their calendar, five annual local tournaments, one annual Open championship apart from three coaching camps, the temple city has been a beehive of chess activity.

The highly competitive local field has groomed this shy youngster. “Though she looks young, she is a seasoned campaigner with adequate tournament exposure for the past 3-4 years,” said Ravisekhar.