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It was a poignant moment for
World Champion Viswanathan Anand. He had come here to felicitate the country's brightest players
Pentyala Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy, but in the midst of his stay, the State chess got a biggest jolt when five of the budding chess players, including two Asian champions, Mekhala Abhinav and Dasari Minu, lost their lives in a road accident in Puri district of Orissa.
Consequently, the function to honour Anand was shorn of the excitement. A visibly moved Humpy, who was close to the young players, thought the shocking incident was too much for her and decided to skip the function. Harikrishna, though terribly shaken, came for the function.
Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended on the chess fraternity of the State. At a time when the State was making rapid strides in this mind game, the ghastly tragedy has come as a big blow. Abhinav and Minu had already made their mark. Abhinav was the winner of the 1999 under-12 Asian championship in Tehran and Minu was the winner of the under-10 Asian championship held at Bikaner in 2000.
The other players Chandrasekahar, who
hail from Haliya in Nalgonda district, Haricharan from Ongole and Maturi Hema Madhuri were newcomers to the game. All of them were under the tutelage of
P D S Girinath and Jayalakshmi, who miraculously survived the accident.
At the Ramnagar residence of eight-year-old Madhuri, there was an eerie silence. Her father, M Anant Ram, had left for Bhubaneswar, but her mother, Shailaja, was there. She was in a state of shock.
"She has been administered sedation,'' said Madhuri's uncle.
Madhuri, a bright student, had taken to chess just six months ago after Girinath had shifted to a house opposite to
her in Ramnagar. She was a good thinker and could grasp things quickly. She went to Puri to play her second tournament. She had earlier taken part in the Kolkata tournament where she had won four games out of seven.
A student of Sri Satya Sai Vidya Mandir in Amberpet, Madhuri possessed good qualities of leadership. The school observed two minutes silence today in memory of
Madhuri. "She was a brilliant student,'' said Ch Sriramalu,
Headmaster of the school. Chandrasekhar, who hailed from a poor family, was an upcoming player. Abhinav also belonged to
Nalgonda.
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