What happens when 12 players challenge a Grandmaster to one-to-one games of chess at the same time? Those who attended the simultaneous chess exhibition match with Dibyendu Barua in the community zone under the Axis Mall flyover got to witness the spectacle last month.
The match was organised by NKDA in a bid to popularise the recently inaugurated space where permanent table tops have chess boards designed on them. “We want to develop a chess-playing culture here, like what is seen under the Gariahat flyover. But it has been noticed that a hurdle in playing a random game while passing the area is the lack of chess pieces at the venue. Grandmaster Barua has offered and we have decided to keep chess pieces in the care of the security guards who will ensure that players return the pieces after a game,” said NKDA chairman
Debashis Sen.
Twelve boards were laid out side by side with players, aged eight to 67 years, taking position with black pieces. “You have to make your return move in the Grandmaster’s presence when he comes back to your table. Once you touch a piece you have to make the move with that piece. If you make your move in his absence twice you will forfeit the game,” Col. (retd) Indrajit Roy, the general manager of New Town Business Club, spelt out the rules.
The first player to bow out was 10-year-old Ankush Bhatta, who stays in Sector V on the fringes of Action Area I. Since he lost in barely five minutes, a bystander took his place but even he did not survive beyond another five minutes. Three players — Shankar Narayan Basu, 38, Deeptanshu Roy, 8, and Abul Kalam Azad, 67 — hung on for half an hour but ended on the losing side.
Only two players managed to hold the Grandmaster to a draw. Forty-two-year-old Alinjar Bhowmik of Sunrise Point played for 50 minutes. But the distinction of holding fort for the longest time went to Prem Arpan Tirkey, aged 19. With spectators gathered round his board, the resident of Greenfield Elegance in Gauranganagar staved off Barua for about an hour before settling for a draw.
Tirkey, who had learnt the game at Alekhine chess club but discontinued to focus on studies, said they played with Sicilian defence. “It was an honour to draw the game. I play online these days,” said the computer science student.
People were awestruck to see Barua in action. “He played 13 players together and none managed to defeat him. Rather, 11 lost outright. It points to his level of fitness and power of concentration to pull off such a feat. All of them were decent players and were getting so much time to think up their next move. He seemed to remember what strategy he had applied to each and every board, and was making his move within 10 seconds. In contrast, his opponents were getting as much as five minutes which was the time he was taking to return to each board after attending to the others,” said Syed Javed Ahmed, a chess enthusiast from New Town’s BC Block, who had come to see his father compete against Barua.
Grandmaster Barua made light of his showing. “I used to play simultaneous chess against 25-30 players regularly and remember playing against even 100 school children once,” he said, adding that he was impressed with the standard of the two players who managed to draw their games. “It was quite humid so it got a bit uncomfortable towards the end but it was a great initiative to popularise chess,” said the resident of FD Block of Salt Lake.