The King defending his King

World chess championship is being held at Bonn in Germany.Viswanathan Anand is just half a point away from his World Champion title,for a second time.It would be a stupendous feat by an Indian Sports person by any standards.He is playing a 12 game match against Valdimir Karminik.Anand is already having a 6-3 lead.If Anand manages, even a draw on the 10th game he would become the World Champion.In fact Anand won the first world championship in 2000.But at that time the world body was divided and there was another rival championship(PCA) and that title was held by Karminik.But when the world body became unified in 2007 Anand became the Champion and thus became the undisputed World Champion.No doubt,Anand is one of the five, all time greats of the game.The others being Bobby Fischer,Karpov,Kasparov and Karminik.With the first three not in contention any more,it is a tussle between Anand and Karminik for the world title.Only 4 players have crossed the FIDE ELO rating of 2800 points and Anand is one among them.

It is a matter of pride that the First Indian InternationalMaster(Manuel Araon) and First Grandmaster(V.Anand) are from Tamilnadu.In fact Tamil nadu has been a nursery for budding chess talent in India.As a mater of fact,out of the 14 GM's of India,four are from Tamilnadu.The others being Sashikiran,Mageshchandran and R.B.Ramesh.To top it all,the first woman grand master of India Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman is also from Tamilnadu.The National deaf and dumb Champion M.K.Alaguraja is also from Tamilnadu.The Asian under 10 Champion title was held some years ago byDeepan Chakravarthy,again from Tamilnadu.He is currently preparing for under 19 world championship.Other promising under 10 talents from Tamilnadu doing Indian colours are Jerome,Ashwini and Mugil Jayavel.Chess Academy's are sprouting everywhere and it is a treat to watch young boys and girls form the age of 5 and above playing intense chess in international tournament conditions using clocks and noting down moves.All these because of one man,Vishwanathan Anand.Though historically,chess is a game of Indian origin,Vishwanathan Anand only made it popular in Inida.This is an undisputed fact.Anand is also adept in Rapid chess and also blindfold chess.
Anand holds a commerce degree.The chennai boy now lives in Collado Mediano in Spain with his wife Aruna.Anand is popularly known as Vishy in international chess circuit.Ironically Vishwanathan is his dad's name.By some queer mistake, in his passport his name was recorded as Vishwanathan Anand against Anand Vishwanathan.Thus he became Vishy to everyone.In 2007 Anand was awarded Padmavibhushan and he is also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi khel Ratna award in 1991-92.Indian Chess fraternity owes a great to Anand for popularising chess in India and also making many turn as chess professionals.Let many more Anand's come and give a stiff fight to end the supremacy of Russian Grandmasters in chess.

Gilly reveals ' True Colours'

The cricket world was taken aback by former Aussie stumper Gilly's comments on Tendulkar in his recently published book.Gilly has played a silly joke on Sachin.Gilly says Tendulkar is a bad sport and his testimony in the Harbajhan row was a joke.Ironically the book is titled 'True colours'.It has brough to light the true colours of Gilly,incidentaly.During the infamous Sydney row of Harbhajan singh,Gilly restrained from making any uncalled for comments unlike many of his team mates.He was praised by the Indian as well as Aussie media for keeping off the controversy.It appears now it was a deliberate move by Gilly,since he planned his retirement from First class cricket then.He did not air his views frankly then keeping his retirement in mind.Now to boost his book sales, he has published some spicy criticism on Tendulkar in his book.While on a winning streak how the Aussies behave with their opponents is well known the world over.But when they do it, it is said"The Aussie mentality is to play it hard".They never bother about niceties.Even at the sydney test, after the controversial victory, Anil Kumble was a silent spectator watching the Aussie's celebrating wildly waiting in the ground to greet the Aussies on their dubious victory.But in Gilly's words, they are great sports and Sachin is a bad sport.Aussies behaviour in the podium after the ICC champonship final,pushingMr.Sharad Pawar BCCI President and subsequent apology for their behaviour is also still fresh in the memory of Indians. At a time when the Aussies are touring India and India are one up in the Test series,these comments of Gilly would start fresh rows among the teams.Gilly's image in India has taken a nose dive from the high pedestal, he occupied in the minds of an average Indian cricket fan.It has been proved once again that great cricketers need not be good ambassodors of the game.

Chandrayan -1

Chandrayan 1 is India's first unmanned lunar exploration scheduled to be launched on Oct 22 by ISRO.Likely to be launched at 0621Hrs from Sriharikotta on Oct 22.Project Chief M. Annadurai hails from Pollachi in Tamilnadu. This mission by ISRO is Indian only in terms of launch vehicle and the space craft.The instrumentation is jointly provided by ISRO,NASA,ESA and Bulgaria.Cost of the project is Rs 386 Crores.The signals from the Satellite will be recieved at Bylalu village 40 Km from Bangalore .This will be the master control facility for Chandrayan 1.The 1.5 ton space craft will take 8 days to reach its orbit, 60 miles away from moons surface.t The distance to be covered from base is around 240000 miles.So far ISRO has sent Satellites only to the earths orbit at a height of about 40000Kms .But the moon orbit would be around 386000 kilometers.Chandrayan -1 will have a 2 year operational life.Other Asian countries who have achieved this feat are China and Japan.China put its unmanned moon mission in orbit in 2007.Same year Japan also succeded in doing so.This project has not been insured,though it is in vogue internationally.ISRO has plans for a manned moon mission in 2014.

Is soccer a dying game in India?

Soccer popularly called Football in India is no more popular in India.Is it because TV channels don't get enough sponsors for football matches or Is it because there is no big money involved in football? Or is it because the AIFF has no big financial clout like the BCCI? I don't think all these are the real reasons.During World cup football there is great euphoria among TV viewers even though the telecasts are made at odd times in India.Most importantly India doesn't feature in any World cup football matches.Even then there were sufficient enthusiastic viewers all over the nation.One witnessed the same euphoria during the recent Euro 2008 Soccer games.Then What ails Indian Football?
Four decades ago football was played in almost all streets of India by bare footed kids.Therewas abundant talent to be groomed.Especially states like Bengal,Kerala,Punjab and Goa were cradles of football in India.If at all, some soccer is left in India,it is only in these states.More prominently in Bengal and Kerala.But even in these states it is a dying game.Cricket a predominantly urban game has taken strong roots in rural centres,thanks to the wide TVcoverage.The fame and money in cricket has also lured budding footballers to cricket.The TeamIndia Cricket skipper Dhoni himself is an example.Dhoni was a socer goalkeper in Ranchi,a small town in Jarkhand never known for cricket.The state federations and the AIFF should host as many tournaments as possible in all rural centres through out the breadth and width of the nation.Infra structure is not a problem at all.Tournaments can be held in school or college football grounds where ever stadia are not availbale.At school levels there should be specialised sports and games oriented professional curricula.Our schools still have the out dated Physical education curricula.The regional associations should get sponsors for kit,equipment,TV and media coverage.In this era of satellite TV, it won't be a difficult task.Public sector undertakings should promote the game by giving employment to talented players by sponsoring them.Public sector undertakings can conduct invitation tournaments or sponsor tournaments at league level.Even armed forces and police,who were hitherto promoting the game are not doing so.It is really a sorry state of affair.What is India's status in soccer at international arena? In 1956 Olympics,India came fourth.After that India has never figured in soccer Olympics.India has never figured in World cup Soccer.The only time India qualified for World cup was in 1950,that too by default.Since qualified teams like Burma,Indonesia and Philipines withdrew from the tournament.But then Indian footballers played bare footed and FIFA refused to acceed to the Indian request to play bare footed!!.What a tragedy! India could not qualify even for Asia cup since 1984 until recently.AFC challenge cup win over Tajikistan has now qualified India for the 2011 AFC cup to be held in Doha after a gap of 24 years.Thanks to the foreign coach, a former England player Bob Houghton.Currently India is ranked 151 in world and 24th among Asian teams.Will India qualify for the 2010 world cup?Let us hope for the best.