Wealth of chess talent in TT

TRINIDAD and Tobago possess a wealth of chess talent and is just five years away from producing a Grand Master. This is the firm opinion of Srinivasan Gopalan, managing-director of the New India Assurance Company Limited, an India-based multi-national general insurance company. Since his posting in Port-of-Spain close to three years ago, Gopalan has forged close links with the chess fraternity adopting the National Championships through generous annual sponsorship. New India’s main local office is based in the Guardian Building, St Vincent Street where Gopalan, a Madras, now Chennai native recently gave an interview to Newsday.

“I am impressed with the new talent that I am seeing in the National Championships. It is encouraging and Trinidad and Tobago definitely has the potential to produce a Grand Master in three to five years,” said a confident Gopalan. He said however, that the emerging young talent must be nurtured and encouraged to produce the desirable results. “The young players must be given the necessary exposure to improve their game and learn from better players,” said Gopalan. He said that the presence in Trinidad and Tobago of Austrian national Martin Neubauer, an International Master, has done a lot to improve the standard of play. “It is a good move to have him here. It adds the international touch to the local game. Things need to happen for the standard of chess to be elevated,” said Gopalan.

The Indian executive stressed that Government must also lend their support to chess even with a fraction of the funds that they hand out annually to the other more established sports. Gopalan said with the support of corporate bodies like New India Assurance Company Limited, local chess will produce world class players who will do Trinidad and Tobago proud in the international arena.Currently there are three FIDE (international governing organisation for chess) Masters in Trinidad and Tobago — Ryan Harper, Mario Merritt and Frank Yee. The next stage is International Master and the top rung is reached when one is accorded the status of Grand Master. Gopalan pointed to the role played by the Chess Association headed by Bisham Soondarsingh in reviving the game where it has over the past few years enjoyed substantial media support. “We need to be active and the efforts are bearing fruits as we are seeing increased participation especially in the ten to 14 age group,” said Gopalan. This, he said is a very good sign.

“We are seeing these young players who are being lured away from the other sports, video and other electronic games sitting down at a board, very focused and displaying great concentration and skills,” said Gopalan. The New India managing-director said the youngsters bring fresh ideas to the board and a kind of fearlessness against seasoned campaigners that has added to a  heightened interest in the game throughout the country. Gopalan said they are the products of excellent training facilities provided by the National Chess Training Centre and opportunities for regular top class competition provided by the Chess Association.

“However we must keep the players motivated and give them our unstinting support,” said Gopalan. New India, based in Bombay, now Mumbai has offices in 26 countries worldwide and has been present in the Caribbean for 55 years. It is the biggest general insurance company in India  with 30 percent of the market share and an asset base of US $3 billion. Among the countries in the Caribbean with a New India presence are Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Dominica, St Maarten, Aruba and Curacao.