T. B. Jayah: The freedom fighter

Every community has produced leaders in different walks of life, who proudly acknowledged Sri Lanka as their home. They shared and proclaimed (announced) the common identity, which all of us have inherited. They gave special attention, as one would expect, to the needs and aspirations of their communities.

They served their communities well, but at the same time, they served the nation as a whole. They courageously fought for the independence and sovereignty of our nation. They never sought to divide the country or set up one community against the other.

Tuan Burhanuddin Jayah, the son of Police Sergeant Cassim Jayah, was born at Galagedera in Kandy on January 1, 1890.

T. B. Jayah played multifarious (a variety) roles to serve the nation, as a teacher, a principal, a member of the Legislative Council, a State Councillor, a Parliamentarian, a Cabinet Minister and as High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in Pakistan.

Jayah had his early education at St. Paul's College, Kandy, from where he won a scholarship to S. Thomas' College. He passed the Cambridge Senior and the London Matriculation Examinations and won many prizes for Mathematics, Latin and Western Classics.

Jayah received his degree from the University of London in 1913, and thereafter joined Ananda College, as a teacher where he taught Classics and History.

The late Prof. G. P. Malalasekera, who was also a distinguished teacher at Ananda at that time, said of Jayah, "He was the doyen of the academic staff, highly respected and loved by both teachers and students alike, a most popular teacher whose classes no student would miss willingly, because his wisdom and erudition(learning) and his power and skill of exposition (interpretation)were truly remarkable."In 1921, Jayah took the reins of Zahira College as principal.

Under his dynamic(energetic and forceful) principalship, Zahira emerged as one of the leading educational institutions in Sri Lanka.

Jayah entered active politics in 1924 and was elected to the Legislative Council. This brave son of Sri Lanka raised his voice for independence in every international forum. The late Prime Minister, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, paying his tribute to Jayah, once remarked: "Credit for the attainment of independence should undoubtedly go to Mr. T. B. Jayah for his historic speech in passing the Dominion Bill."

Jayah was unassuming and modest, and never sought cheap publicity or applause. As a distinguished son of Lanka, he was determined and bold, and diligently inched his way to rescue his nation from the grip of foreign domination.

T. B. Jayah passed away on May 31, 1960 at the age of 72 in the Holy City of Medina, Saudi Arabia.

Dahlan Salahudeen, Staff, St. Thomas' College, Matara.

Anatoly Karpov: The grandmaster of chess

Many of us learn chess at school, which is one of the most preferred indoor games. We will not be able to talk about this sport without mentioning the name of a great chess player who has contributed a lot towards chess. He is Anatoli Karpov.

Anatoli Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He is the most successful tournament player of all time, with a professional record of 1,118 wins, 287 losses, and 1,480 draws in 3,163 games.

Karpov was born on May 23, 1951 in Zlatoust in the former Soviet Union, and learned to play chess at the age of four. At age 12, he was accepted into Mikhail Botvinnik's prestigious chess school. Karpov was the youngest Soviet National Master in history at the age of 15, and won in his first international chess tournament several months later.

In 1967, he took fifth place in the Soviet Junior Chess Championship and won the European Junior Chess Championship later that same year.

Karpov's playing style was solid, taking no risks, but reacting mercilessly to any tiny errors made by his opponents. Karpov's mastery of the ending was unparalleled (unmatched); although he kept his variety of openings relatively narrow, his middle game was always solid.

One of the first achievements of Karpov's tournament career was the exceptional Montreal "Super-Grandmaster" tournament in 1979, where he ended joint first with Mikhail Tal, ahead of a field of superb grandmasters (Jan Timman, Ljubojevic, Boris Spassky and Kavalek).

Karpov's first title defence in 1978 was against Viktor Korchnoi, the opponent he beat in the previous Candidates Tournament. The situation was vastly different to the previous match. In the intervening years, Korchnoi had defected from the Soviet Union and was now in Switzerland. A lot of psychological tricks were also used during this match played in the Philippines.

The off-board antics, which took place during the contest are, unfortunately, better remembered than the actual chess. Karpov took an early lead, but Korchnoi staged an amazing comeback very late in the match, and came close to winning. Karpov narrowly won the last game to take the match 6-5.

Three years later, Korchnoi re-emerged as the Candidates winner against German finalist Dr. Robert Huebner to challenge Karpov in Merano, Italy. The psychological trick employed this time also overshadowed the games, but Karpov easily won what is remembered as the "Massacre of Merano".

Anatoly Karpov had cemented his position as the world's best player, and real world champion when Garry Kasparov arrived on the scene. After the aborted(unsuccessful) first match, Karpov lost his title -and a ten-year tenure(length of time) was over.

Karpov remained a formidable (strong) opponent for most of the eighties, fighting Kasparov in over five World Championships, all of them close. Karpov lost a Candidates Match against Nigel Short in 1992, but re-acquired the FIDE World later.

The nineties showed the gradual decline of Karpov's playing strength - apart from one strong performance against the world's best players in Linares in 1994. Karpov won the tournament, which included Kasparov, by a large margin.

Karpov's committed tournament play has been seriously limited since 1999, preferring to be more involved in the politics of his home country, Russia.