GM Ivan Sokolov is well-known for taking on challenging projects as a trainer. This year he turned his attention to the Uzbekistan team, a team that, like Iran (which Sokolov trained before), was very young. How did it so happen that the team surpassed all expectations and clinched the gold in the Chennai chess Olympiad? What was the role of Ivan Sokolov? How much time did he spend with the team? What were his training techniques? All of this and much more in this hour-long interview by IM Sagar Shah. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
In the third episode of the series "Olympiad stories with Saravanan", IM Sagar Shah and IM Venkata Saravanan discuss Judit Polgar's flabbergasting 12½/13 performance in the 1988 Thessaloniki Olympiad. Judit was rated 2365 FIDE at the time, with rating lists coming out every six months. Not only did Hungary sweep the championship to take gold and defeat the all-powerful Soviet chess team, but Judit had an incredible 2694 performance, and she was barely twelve years old. To better put this in perspective, you need to realize that, in 1988, only two players in the world had 2700+ ratings: Kasparov and Karpov. | Photo: Abhyudaya Ram
B. Tata Rao, one of the pioneers for bringing chess to the steel city, died of Coronavirus infection at Tata Main Hospital on Thursday.
Fondly called BT da, the 82-year-old was a resident of Adityapur and is survived by his wife, three sons and mother.
Though his main involvement was in the field of volleyball, he was instrumental in the growth of chess in Jamshedpur. He was actively involved in almost all sporting events organised by LIC, his employers.
Condoling Rao’s demise, All Jharkhand Chess Association (AJCA) secretary International Master Neeraj Kumar Mishra said his (Rao’s) contribution in chess was from the early days of East Singhbhum District Chess Association.