The Royal Game: Fostering friendships, promoting joy!

Welcome back!

It was a surreal Sunday last week (November 9, 2014) at NMIMS for the chess folks. With no games scheduled the previous day, the players got some time off. Scheduling became an issue for Sunday. As is often the case, the ‘cruel’ B-school mails before we close our eyes at night meant that I had to stay awake till 2AM (essentially running into Sunday) to finalize the fixtures for Semi-finals and Finals. With help from ‘sporty’ seniors over Whatsapp, I somehow managed to do so!

‘It’s a B-school; we cannot do everything single-handed!’

The big four teams of the semis were NM Warriors, SP Jain, Sydenhams and KJ Somaiya. The first semi-final of the day was between hosts NM Warriors and SP Jain. The visitors arrived bang on time at 1 PM. This time they reached the correct building without much hassles! After logistical delays, the match started at 1:30 PM at room 507. Fittingly, it was the Council room for the day, and it takes its rightful place in history!

Clearly, the match was going to be tough. We could not get any advantage in the first half hour of the match. Mostly searching for advantages which were…well, nowhere to be found.

            “Okay Arun, what are you doing?”… Neel’s mind voice may be!

My opponent Shyam (board one) was handing the Najdorf position quite well and I was meandering here and there before finding a way to breakthrough. In the meantime, Neel came to an advantageous position. Natarajan followed suit and we finally got them on the backfoot.

             SP Jain team’s time to think. Abhishek, Ashish, Shyam (l-r on the right)

As tradition would have it, my game finished last, which in fact was inconsequential as we had won the match 2-0 by that time. After my game ended, the score line read 3-0. We had a great satisfaction of winning a really tough match 3-0. As Natarajan and I discussed after the game, this match was by far the toughest, way tougher than XLRI and NITIE sports fests put together…

This match went to the extent of players analyzing the games, which is a rarity seen in college fests. The eagerness was impalpable. This, combined with Anand-Carlsen match round the corner, there was so much to discuss. We spoke a lot and in fact, they invited us to their sports fest which might happen in January 2015. Surely guys, we will be there!

                    l-r: Neel, Arun, Natarajan, Abhishek, Ashish, Shyam “Chess was the winner!”

The second semifinals between Sydenhams and KJ Somaiya started at 5:30 PM. Both teams arrived at 5 PM, again, punctuality! Here were another two teams that were ready to take each other by their horns.

                                     Sydenhams on the left, KJ Somaiya on the right

I anticipated that this match would go down to the wire and it did just that. Somaiya team was quite strong on board one and got to better position quite soon. After some time, they were better on board three as well. Subodh (board 2 for Sydenhams) due to his superior experience, was heralding the hopes of Sydenhams. He couldn’t avoid the inevitable for long, as KJ Somaiya held on to their advantages and converted into full points. In the end, Sudobh managed to stop the whitewash, winning his individual game. KJ Somaiya deservedly reached finals with a score of 2-1 in the semis. Somnath, the captain of the Sydenhams team and I followed the Anand-Carlsen match for sometime before the team left the venue. I thoroughly enjoyed handling these games – I could get a sense of holding these events from the other side of the board!

“We change lives”

The stage was set for the final showdown. KJ Somaiya – with three rated players against our team NM Warriors. It helped us that we didn’t know they were rated! :D Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. The match started at 7:00 PM. By far one of the last action items to happen in Samarthya 2014.

For the first time in the event, I got the Black pieces. I equalized easily. After a few exchanges, the position was completely equal. 40 minutes passed. Then another 5. To my horror, I found Natarajan in desperate time trouble – he had a rook and two pawns against opponent’s rook and pawn. Our Captain was offering a draw but the opponent, Suraj Jain, refused to take it. He played for time and as often happens, lost his nerve. In the next few minutes, what transpired was that Suraj blundered the rook and everything he had only to get mated with Natarajan having a little over 5 seconds on the clock. Phew! That was intense!

In the meantime, Neel went into habitual time trouble. Though he had an extra piece, which he won through precise play, he could not hold the position with just 30 seconds on the clock. Well, it was just middle game – so this was expected. It was all down to my game.

            When the going gets tough, it gets exciting – and makes everything worthwhile!

I had 6 minutes to my opponent’s 2. My opponent Rahul, blundered his queen in an otherwise slightly worse position and resigned immediately. And there ended all the action in a breathtaking finish. With everyone watching, NM Warriors won the championship with a tongue-in-cheek score line of 2-1. Again, there was a big round of post-mortem analysis, followed by two 3-minute bullet games. The vibration was still there. We couldn’t believe the result for a further 10 minutes before reality dawned upon us. And then, there was jubilation in the NMIMS camp.

It was great organizing this event as part of Samarthya 2014. In festivals like these, it’s not just about playing and winning. This was a chance to meet new people and make friends, apart from the intense team battles that inevitably took place. On that front, at least Chess was hugely successful in bringing together like-minded people. Moreover, this tournament was way tougher than other festivals as we observed. Overall, it was a great weekend in this trimester – and I don’t think I will find a better one till the end of 2014.

 p.s. The pronite of our business festival 'Paragana' happened on 13th November, with a Benny Dayal concert. And yes, one friend from from KJ Somaiya was there. There you go... Chess makes good beginnings!

Until next time,

Enjoy November!

 ak™