|
Super Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand today expressed his reservations about the ongoing process of reunification between FIDE and its rival body, saying even leading players like him had been virtually kept in the dark on the proposed move.
"So far, the organisers have been very vague on information. There have been no initial releases. I can't understand why it should be so," Anand told newspersons here on the sidelines of a function at
Udayan, Calcutta a home for children of leprosy patients.
Anand said as per schedule, the new cycle in world chess would begin by the end of next year, but it seemed that the organisers were not yet ready with even the basic documents.
"I don't wish to sound like a
sceptic. But there are things you need to share," he said.
The former world champion, however, said he hoped that the project would come through. "Let's hope it succeeds so that we can carry it from there."
Asked to name the Indian player most likely to follow in his footsteps to become the country's second super GM, Anand said K Sasikiran was knocking at the door with a FIDE rating of 2,650, while Abhijit Kunte and P Harikrishan were also bright prospects.
Referring to newly crowned GM Surya Sekhar
Ganguly, he said the Bengal player was quite promising and now needed to set his goals higher.
On India's dismal performance in the recent chess Olympiad at Bled, where the men and women teams finished 29th and 23rd respectively, Anand said the tournament format was such that one bad day could ruin the chances of any side. "And that's what happened with the Indians."
"The men played well but had three bad days against Russia, England and Iceland," he said to buttress his point.
Anand said he hoped to set up a chess academy in the distant future after retiring from the game, but refused to make any commitment on the issue.
"Now I would like to keep the ball rolling by holding training camps and clinics for youngsters once or twice a year," he said.
Anand stressed the need for spreading computer technology far and wide in the country for the development of the game.
The chess star, who, with wife
Aruna, went round Udayan interacting with the inmates, said he savored
every moment spent with the children.
Anand, who visited Udayan as part of a
program sponsored by computer training major NIIT, also distributed scholarships among 100 inmates to enable them take part in the company's computer literacy
program 'Swift Jyoti.'
Anand dropped into the boys hostel Gandhi Bhavan and the girls wing Nivedita
Bhavan.
He briefly visited a classroom and saw paintings done by the inmates before rounding off his trip by attending a cultural
program and a gymnastics routine presented by the children.
Agencies
|
