LUDHIANA, Sept 21 — Three chess players of the city — Vikas Sharma, Arvinderpreet Singh and Harkamal Singh — who have been included in the four-member Punjab team for the National-B Championship to be held in October, are training hard for the meet.

They had qualified for the tournament earlier this month. For the first time, three players from the city have been included in the state team.

The selection process was rigorous. After securing a position among the top 10 players in respective district tournaments, they fought for being in the top 10 in the inter-district tournament. The top 10 player of the meet, besides the top four of the past year’s meet, competed in the Punjab-A Championship, out of which, the first four got selected for the national tournament.

Vikas Sharma, youngest state champion so far, said he wanted to do well in the national championship. He likes to study computers, books and analysis of games in Chess Mate.

He is an employee of the Northern Railway and works at the city’s railway station. Senior chess players like Rajiv Nayyar coach him. He began his career as a chess player early. After winning many junior and sub-junior meets, he became the youngest state champion in 1996, breaking the record of his coach, Rajiv Nayyar, in the process.

Within a few years after this, he got an FIDE rating of 2195. Vikas is the junior state champion for the past four years.

He thanks the Northern Railway for providing him with a job on the basis of his performance. Vikas says that the state government is not encouraging the game. “Punjab players have enormous talent, but the state government does not give them jobs,” he said.

He gives the credit for his achievements to his parents and Rajiv Nayyar. He said, contrary to the popular belief, chess was a costly game. Every chess player needed to have a computer and the latest literature. As most of the chess books are Russian or American publications, these are expensive.

Arvinder Singh was a national hockey player, initially. He took part in a junior chess tournament for the first time in 1996. By the next year, he had become the number two junior chess player in Punjab. He won the third position in the Punjab A Chess Championship that was held recently.

Arvinder learned to play chess from his father and Rajiv Nayyar. He is a BCA student of IGNOU. He follows a five-hours daily practice-schedule. He is also finding it difficult to obtain finances for better training facilities. He said the state government did not recognise the game and discouraged young players.