When Eesha Karvade (21) first started playing chess at the age of ten, she would never have guessed that it would become her vocation. She kept learning the moves of this clever and complex mind game to the extent that she was awarded the title of International Master at the Internationale De Paris Tournament held in Paris last August. Eesha is ranked 83rd among women Grand Masters internati-onally, and 17th among Asian women Grand Masters.
That she had an inherent aptitude for chess became clear to Eesha a month after she first learned to play the game, in 1997. She promptly entered a national tournament and finished eighth. Trained by eminent coaches Mrunalini Kunte-Aurangabadkar, Abhijit Kunte, Shrinivas Rao, Mohan Phadke and Arun Vaidya who earned their reputations in national and international tournaments, Eesha displayed her adroitness at moving the pieces by winning the Women’s International Master title in Mumbai in 2003. That was when she completed her first norm. Norms are awards to above average chess players by the Federation Internationale des Eches. A minimum of four norms are required to qualify as a Grand Master.
Mastering her strategy, Eesha cleared her second and third norms in 2003 and 2004, achieving a ‘rating’ of 2,200. She won her first International Masters norm in Balaguer in Spain in 2006 and a second International Masters norm at the 3rd Tan Arthur Malaysian Open Tournament in 2006. The following year in Dubai, she obtained her third norm before winning the International Masters in Paris this year. A commerce graduate of Pune University, Eesha is pursuing her postgrad degree as an external student, to make enough time for training.
Given that Indian academia and society has little time for sports and extracurricular activity, this rising chess star has had to plow a lonely furrow. “When Eesha became a Grand Master in 2007, the Maharashtra sports director assured me that she would be sent to a coaching camp and all tournaments would be sponsored. But nothing of the sort happened. When a player reaches this level, a single day’s coaching can set one back by Rs.3,000. Which is why state sponsorship is so important for a player’s progress,” says Dr. Sanjay Karvade, Eesha’s father and a practi-sing dentist in the city.
A seasoned international voyager who has participated in tournaments with prize money of $45,000, Eesha believes she has eight-ten years of competitive chess left in her. “After that I plan to coach and mentor the next generation of chess players,” she says.
Huned Contractor (Pune)
Albha Oberoi
A class XII student of Dehradun’s Summer Valley School, Albha Oberoi (17) is back fromthe five-day All India Open Shooting Championship held in mid November at the Punjab Armed Police Shooting Range in Jalandhar. Organised by the National Rifle Association of India, the event attracted participation from 1,400 sharpshooters nationally. In the 10 metre air pistol event, Albha averaged a score of 360 which qualifies her to a shoot-out in January for admission into the national team.
Albha took to competitive sharp-shooting in 2006, when she was merely 14 years of age. “My grandfather was in the army and he would narrate stirring tales of the exploits of sharpshooters. So when coach Mayank Marwah started shooting classes in school, I was quick to sign up. Within a few months he had identified the traits of a promising sharpshooter in me,” she recalls. Encouragement from her coach was bolstered by support from her father Pranveer, a general manager at Lintas Pharmaceuticals, Dehradun and mother Anuradha, a geography teacher at Summer Valley School. “They actually forced me to take this sport seriously,” reminisces Albha.
In the recently concluded year (2009), Albha participated in the National team trials in Pune (June 20-26) and All-India Inter-School Shooting Championship where she did Uttarakhand proud by bagging the silver medal in the 10 metre air pistol event. She struck her first gold at the all-India Inter-School Shooting Championship held at Amity University, Noida (2007).
Practising the adage that success is 99 percent perspiration, this star sharpshooter follows a rigorous schedule. “I get up around 5 a.m for a yoga session which is followed by target practice. The evenings again are reserved for practice and Saturdays devoted to competitive shooting. Concentration, focus and mental peace have to be consciously developed to succeed in this sport,” says Albha.
Poised to move to the next level of competitive sharpshooting, her eyes are set on the forthcoming Kumar Surender Singh National Championship sched-uled in June 2010. The Asian Junior Championship and Singapore Open Shooting Championships are other events in her sights.
“My immediate plans are to qualify for the national team and develop into a world-class shooter like my idols Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Jaspal Rana and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. For academic growth I want to pursue a degree in industrial design,” says Albha, setting a high bar for her athletic and academic goals.
Natasha Pathak (Dehradun)