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Dasari Minu's greatest wish was to meet Viswanathan Anand. She was a great fan of the
World Champion. But destiny willed otherwise. Ten-year-old Dasari Minu may have made a wrong, fatal move. She was in Kozhikode to participate in the preparations for the World age-group championship in Spain. But since there were very few trainees in Kozhikode, she returned to Hyderabad. But when she came to know that her
'guru' P D S Girinath would be going to Puri to participate in a tournament, she boarded the train along with her coach, only to meet with the fatal accident in Orissa.
"Minu was a very shy girl. She was often bullied by the chess players in the tournament. But she took it in good sporting spirit,'' said a shocked Nasiruddin Ghalib, the former National champion.
Minu belonged to Ongole where she showed promise under her first coach Amarnath. Encouraged, her mother Ranee Kumar got herself transferred to the City to give better training facilities to her daughter. Her move proved right as Minu made tremendous progress under Girinath. In the
Under - 10 children's National championship she finished runners up. This gave her the opportunity to participate in the Bikaner Children's Asiad where she walked away with the title in the
Under - 10 category and also a ticket to the Spain championship.
Before the Asian championship, Girinath had taught her about 100 opening games on which basis she could excel in the tournament.
"She was very hard working and at the same time she was very sharp,'' said
Ghalib. The State has lost another Humpy in the making. Abhinav's dream:
"I want to become a Grandmaster and play like Viswanathan Anand,'' said Mekhala Abhinav on his return from Tehran after winning the
Under - 10 championship in April 2000. But fate snatched the life of this promising player in the ghastly accident in Orissa. Hailing from Kodad, a small village in Nalgonda district, the unassuming Abhinav was one of the brightest stars on the horizon.
"He had an amazing memory power. He could grasp any move very quickly,'' said Ghalib, himself a former National chess champion.
India's youngest Grandmaster Pentyala Harikrishna was shocked hearing the death of
Abhinav. "He was my roommate during many of the tournaments. He would play practice games with me. He would also try to learn from any mistakes,'' said Harikrishna.
Reacting to the tragic deaths of Minu and Abhinav, in Kozhikode, All India Chess Federation
Secretary P T Ummer Koya said: "Abhinav had the potential to become a Grandmaster. He could have even broken Harikrishna's record, by becoming the youngest-ever GM in the history of the game.''
"I had always enjoyed watching Abhinav's play. I have often felt that his keen eyes had clearly reflected his strong will. It is really a great loss, not merely to his family, but to the Indian chess as well,'' said
Ummer Koya, who appealed to the Andhra Pradesh State government to extent its support to the family of the deceased.
"Just days before, Abhinav and Minu had been cleared by the Central government to take part in the World Cup
Junior championship in Spain scheduled for next month,'' he said. The 11-member team of players, coaches and officials were coming to Puri from Hyderabad to take part in a
FIDE-rated championship.
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