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| Sunday, 25 September 2005 |
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Past champions get-together to boost Chess King to checkmate the Bishop... goes the elementaries of chess. But for once off the chess board a learned lot have grouped themselves together to better what they say is not a properly oiled machinery governing the sport. To the forefront are Sri Lanka's only two Grandmasters so far produced in Christopher Parakrama and Harinlal Aturupane, President and Vice- President of the revived Chess Association of Sri Lanka (CASL) after a long hiatus. As it is, long festered in years, this indoor sport of brains and not brawn unlike in other sports which is a mix of both, is well steeped in Sri Lanka. The talent was in abundance. Competitors from very young school going ages were drooping over the chess board. But the CASL, with a history as the foremost body in the sport, is of the view that there is a big vacuum in so much as fine tuning the available talent. "We can see the talent everywhere. Today, particularly the girls have shown flair. But down the line theoretically we are lacking. The sport needs that much of a shot in the arm for young talent to come to grips with the sport. Not having a rating scheme was another drawback," said Dr. R. D. Guneratne, Secretary of the CASL. He lamented that about 20 years ago the country was on a better footing. It had produced two Grandmasters in Parakrama and Aturupane. But today, there was a stagnation. Sri Lanka who was once abreast of countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, was down languishing far behind. Comparatively, India had produced a world champion while Pakistan and Bangladesh too had produced many Grandmasters. Sri Lanka had produced two. But failure to produce more grandmasters was an induction of failures and loopholes in the existing machinery. The regrouping of the game's intellectuals in Aturupane, a former national champion from 1984 to '92, Parakrama former national champion in 1973, Guneratne ex-national player, Harindra Dassanayake (Assistant Secretary) an ex-coach, Dilmy Bandulasena (Tournament Secretary), Muditha Hettigama (Treasurer) and M. L. Mohideen and Malinda Seneviratne, also active in the field, was all about redressing the state of affairs. Its much spelt out plan is for the re-development of the sport in terms of improving the level of play and the standard of coaching young players and strengthening the professionalism of chess administration. It extended an invitation to other clubs and organisations sharing the vision of the founder members to join hands with CASL at the relaunching of the organisation last Tuesday at the Colombo Rowing Club auditorium. Parakrama said that a new blessing envisaged to chess here through CASL was to harness foreign expertise to fine tune talent and activating regular tour exchanges on a country to country promotional drive. He was responding to a question by the Sunday Observer. With the rejuvenation, Sri Lanka could look at more grandmasters in about five years hence, predicted CASL Secretary in response to the Sunday Observer. Organising tournaments, conducting coaching camps and instituting an universal rating scheme for all Sri Lankan players were the immediate priorities in the year ahead. S.O |
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