Vishy Anand versus Gujarat
The state of Gujarat has always supported sports in a big way. In a new development, Sanskardham Sports Academy, a state of the art sporting complex will be launched on 8th of September 2019. Chess is one of the twelve sports that will be supported by the academy. GM Vishy Anand is invited as the guest of honour and on 7th of September he indulged in a very unique match-up. He played against twenty young talents of Gujarat chess where the youngsters could consult with each other before making their move. In this article we not only bring you the impressions from the event, but also show you the game which was quite intense and Anand had to use quite a bit of technique to bring home the full point!
The players who were playing for Team Gujarat were:
1. Vishwa Vasnawala (2112), 2. Dhyana Patel (1814), 3. Aanya Agarwal (1446), 4. Aneri Kanjar (1351), 5. Kriti Shah (1340), 6. Suyogkumar Patel (1314), 7. Samarth Adalja (1282), 8. Priyam Chavda (1219), 9. Asudani Ruhani Raj (1184), 10. Raj Lakhlani (1136), 11. Kathan Thakkar (1126), 12. Jenisha Khattar (1022), 13. Dina Patel, 14. Shivem Kamdar, 15. Prajaval Goswami, 16. Prasann Goswami, 17. Jaswin Chaudhary, 18. Dev Modi, 19. Chintan Odedra and 20. Parth Zala.
Speaking to ChessBase India, GM Tejas Bakre said, "It was a unique and a very memorable experience to interact and spend time with Anand. To interact during an ongoing game was very interesting and his sense of humour and wit while playing made the event quite a fun one. Also Aruna and he remembered my meeting with them when I was a young kid in Moscow 1998 (17 years old) where he had won the chess Oscar and I was invited to his function as I had won the world youth Olympic gold then."
The game:
The time control of the game was Vishy Anand having 10 minutes, while the Gujarat youngsters had 20.
Vishy Anand vs 20 players from Gujarat
There is only one way for White to get an advantage here and that is 14.Bc4! which Anand found without too many difficulties.
Material on Sicilian Dragon in the ChessBase India shop:
Was a lovely experience. Interacting with the children and the school leadership. Its nice to see Sports play an important role in student development.Look forward to tomorrow’s panel discussion #FitIndiaMovement https://t.co/BF4N6qD0BL
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) September 7, 2019
The opening ceremony for the Sanskardham sports academy will take place on 8th of September 2019, which can viewed LIVE here at 12.30 p.m. Apart from the launch of the academy, it will also see the inauguration of Khel Mahakumbh, a panel discussion and also a pledge by various stakeholders towards the FIT India movement.