New India Assurance $ for chess

YOUNGSTERS should be encouraged to play chess as the game helps them acquire positive attributes which serve them in good stead throughout their lives.

This is the view of Srinivasan Gopalan, managing-director of The New India Assurance Company (TT) Limited based in Port-of-Spain. The Mumbai headquartered multinational with assets of US $2.5 billion worldwide, except North America is the leading insurance company in India. Gopalan has pledged his office’s commitment to sponsor the National Chess Championships for the second year running with a generous contribution gleefully accepted by Chess Association president Bhisham Soondarsingh yesterday.

The Madras-born Gopalan, who is on his first overseas assignment for New India Assurance, has been in Trinidad for the past 18 months and is a keen chessist, hence his natural affinity to the local game. There are other attractions however, one being the fact that the game originated in the Indian subcontinent, hotly disputed by the Chinese. Another is the outstanding chessists produced by his homeland within recent times who have won several international tournaments and rank among the best in the world.

The third reason is the undoubted qualities which playing the game can bestow on its adherents especially the very young. “It builds character, helps in their allround development and teaches them most of all the important virtue of patience,” said Gopalan yesterday at his office in the Guardian Building, St Vincent Street. The Indian native, who runs a successful Port-of-Spain operation also suggested that chess experts from his homeland could be lured here to conduct workshops and impart their knowledge once arrangements could be made.

It was a point touched upon by Soondarsingh, who said despite the lack of sufficient funds to successfully run local development programmes, TT chessists are the best in the Caribbean consistently defeating their counterparts from Barbados, Jamaica and the Bahamas. “We still manage to come out on top and do well in international competitions. But more must be given to chess to sustain the impetus,” said Soondarsingh. He said Barbados expend considerable human and financial resources in the game and currently employ several foreign experts teaching and conducting programmes with the top and upcoming players. The National Championships, Soondarsingh said, gets going on May 2 with the Tobago leg from which two players will advance to the national finals.

On May 17 national champion and FIDE Master Ryan Harper will engage 11 qualifiers from the respective zones in a round-robin tournament at the Students Activity Centre, University of the West Indies, St Augustine from 3 pm. Among the chessists bidding for honours are FIDE Masters Mario Merrit, Frank Yee and Cecil Lee from the North Zone. Representing East will be John Raphael, Kirby Hope and Jerome Joseph. The South/Central challenge will be headed by Christo Cave, Andrew Bowles, and Guelmo Rosales. Not to be left out, there will also be a national championship for the women with defending champion Desiree Derrick putting her crown in the line.