KOLKATA: Hailed as one of the best chess minds in the country, Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly comes across as a level-headed personality.
The Bengal chess association doesn’t allow him to participate in state tournaments, but the 36-year-old has remained ice cool because he receives multiple invitations from top international events.
Impressive start
Ganguly’s beginnings were promising – he beat a Grandmaster when he was 11. Finished with a bronze medal behind Levon Aronian at the Under-12 Championship in Szeged (Hungary) in 1994.
He achieved the International Master title at the age of 16. It was followed by Grandmaster at 19, and then held the national title for a record six consecutive times between 2003 and 2008.
Over three FIDE World Championship campaigns between 2008 and 2012, Ganguly was one of Viswanathan Anand’s core four-member team which had put together lines and variations for the chess legend’s successive world title bids.
Peter Heine Nielsen, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Radek Wojtazsek were the other three ‘seconds’.
A year after he joined Anand’s team, Ganguly became the Asian champion in 2009 and touched his peak career rating of 2672 in 2010.
Ganguly recently spoke to Khelupdates on a wide of range of topics at his Kolkata residence.
Excerpts:
India haven’t produced a chess icon like Anand. What’s the reason?
Ganguly: Anand had a good upbringing in chess. He grew up in the Philippines and received a very high level of chess education at a young age. Barring Harikrishna, Sasikiran and I didn’t even receive Grandmaster training when we were young. I learned chess at the club level, and then straightaway went to play in international and national tournaments. There was a huge flaw in trainings that we had received. It took a lot of time to overcome that faulty education. We struggled and reached that level through hard work and dedication.
World champion Magnus Carlsen has predicted India to be a super power in chess. Is that a realistic prediction?
Ganguly: Carlsen has a logic. India currently has 65 Grandmasters. But most of them have quit the sport and taken up coaching. RB Ramesh is into full-time coaching since last 10 years. This is something good for the new generation of players. We didn’t get this GM training. India ranks five among the 80 chess playing countries. This we couldn’t have imagined even few years back. Carlsen is right when he said India will produce world champions in the near future.
Will there be a franchise-based chess league in future?
Ganguly: I regularly play at the leagues in Germany, Spain, China and Greece. It helps a lot to improve the game. I’ve heard that a franchise-based league will start in India from next year, and each team will have their own icons. Such a league will benefit Indian chess.
Can chess become a part of educational curriculum?
Ganguly: Yes, it should. The primary aim is not to produce a Grandmaster, but chess is known to strengthen concentration. If a child plays chess, calculation ability enhances. There’re many things a school student can learn from it.
What do you think is pushing Bengal chess behind?
Ganguly: Bengal lack good coaches. There’s no use of launching multiple chess schools if there’re no experienced teachers. GMs like Sandipan Chanda, Nilotpal Das and me are full-time players. We can’t get into coaching right now. Tamil Nadu is churning out future GMs because Ramesh has took up the coaching responsibility. Bengal can hire GMs from other states or countries, but then there’s a budgetary constraint.
Any message for the juniors?
Ganguly: Whatever you are doing in life, do it with devotion and love. Don’t focus on success only. Achievement will happen by default. If you are in a chess training, but you want to play football, go and play. Do justice to that. You cannot play chess when you’re thinking about football. Whatever you do, give 100 per cent.
