When young minds learn from the masters

The last time Magnus Carlsen gave a display of simultaneous chess in India, he was in for a surprise. And he spoke about it just before he took on 25 young players a few hours before the fifth edition of the Global Chess League got underway here on Saturday.

Carlsen had come to Chennai in 2013 for a reconnaissance ahead of his first World title match, against Viswanathan Anand. He agreed to play with 20 youngsters.

“I was told the players were some school champions, and I wasn’t aware that I was going to take on some really strong players,” the World No. 1 recalled. “I had jet-lag, and my opponents included Pragg (R. Praggnanandhaa), Vaishali and Aravindh Chithambaram. I don’t even remember how many games I lost.”

He actually lost four, one of which was against Vaishali. And he drew six; Praggnananandhaa and Aravindh were among the players that held him.

The organisers of the simultaneous event, Yippee, principal sponsor of Carlsen’s GCL franchise, Alpine APL Pipers, sprang no such surprise. There was only one strong player, Pratitee Bordoloi, who recently won the Asian junior girls’ championship. And she, in fact, came in as a last-minute replacement for one of the players.

Indian Grandmasters Koneru Humpy and Vidit Gujrathi also took on the youngsters alongside Carlsen. Another Grandmaster, Pravin Thipsay, the coach of Alpine Pipers, was also there, to explain the rules to the kids.

Vidit spoke of his own experience of playing simultaneous chess against a Grandmaster, from the other side of the board, as a little boy. Later, on Thipsay revealed he was that Grandmaster.

“I had played against kids at Nasik and I remember my six-year-old opponent,” said Thipsay. “I found him pretty good in positional play even at that age. And I told his father that the boy showed a lot of promise.”