The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

SPORT

“Anand’s win a stepping stone for youngsters”
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Dec 26 — It will be a big stepping stone for the youngsters when they discuss, feel proud of Viswanathan Anand the world champion in the FIDE World Chess Championship officials.

Naveen Jain, Chandigarh chess champion from 1997, said 31-year- old Anand’s fine win had made the world to think that brains and beauty both were in India and it was a rare feat by any Indian. He was of the opinion that while staying in India, Anand could not have improved much and it was only when his father who got his posting in Philippines that Anand was able to groom himself. Naveen said, it was a pity that chess players were not being given due recognition in India even if they performed. He hoped that with this new world champion from India, it might become an eye-opener for sport administrators to give priority to chess.

Vipnesh Bhardwaj secretary of the Chandigarh Chess Association, said a few minutes of interaction with Anand recently was a morale-booster for him and he requested Anand to pay a visit to Chandigarh. He said Anand’s win was not a small thing and felt that there were grand celebrations accompanied by honours whenever any sportspersons perform at this level. He hoped the same would be forthcoming for this Chennai-based champion. He further said winning three games in a world championship match was a unique feat but Shirov needed some credit for fighting bravely and going down. Earlier people used to have names of Anatoly Karpov and Gary Kasparov as synonymous with chess but now the same would be uttered for Anand, he added.

Dr Anil Raina a reader at Panjab University and former national-level chess player, said with Anand’s magnificent win, the mindset towards this game would have a sea change. He said once he met one of the sports officers of an institution who told him that chess was just a hobby sport.

The attitude might change for the better for chess, which was popular in our homes he hoped. He said at the school-level, the response was there. He was hopeful that this world-class achievement would be a boon to chess as more youngsters could aspire to glory of this kind.

The knockout system of the FIDE had yielded results, said Setul Verma, a software engineer. A resident of SAS Nagar, he was proud in saying that it would be a real motivational factor for the budding chess players of the region as this game was otherwise given less publicity. He wished that this exemplary feat by Anand got properly acknowledged.

Sunny, Deepak enter semis
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Dec 26 — Sunny Bhalla and Deepak Goel entered the last four of the Open Snooker League by defeating Lalit Ailawadi and Honey Bhalla, respectively, in the Saurav Khattar Memorial Haryana State Billiards and Snooker Championship being played here at Billiards Hall, YMCA, Sector 11.

The match between Sunny and Lalit was a neck-to-neck encounter which lasted to five frames and even to the last black ball. Sunny won at 38-24, 12-60, 68-31, 31-57 and 50-48. In the tie between Deepak and Honey, it was Honey who won the first frame at 67-24 but then Deepak made a comeback to win the rest three frames at 63-19, 60-29, 54-40. In the junior snooker semi-finals, Manan Nagpal, the defending champion, went down fighting to Suvir Sethi at 54-55, 37-59, 48-80, 60-30 in a thrilling match.

Cricket tourney

Hansraj Public School, Sector 6, Panchkula, outplayed YPS, SAS Nagar, by 31 runs in the under-16 section of the Ist St John’s Challenger Trophy Cricket Match being played here at St John’s High School, Sector 26. HPS boys made 176 runs for nine wickets in the 25 overs with Vidit Kataria scoring 67 runs, while YPS were able to make 145 runs for nine wickets in 25 overs.

In the under-12 section, St John’s school outscored YPS by six wickets, while St Kabir’s School, Sector 26, got the better of Hansraj Public School, Panchkula, by 53 runs.

Lawn tennis trials

The UT Education Department will hold selection trials in lawn tennis in the under-14, 17 and 19 sections at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, on December 28 at 10 a.m. for the selection of UT team for the National School Games to be held at Gandhinagar from January 8 to 12.