A silver at the Asian Continental Championship earned him a shot at next year’s World Cup but Grandmaster B. Adhiban is not looking too far ahead and is focussed on becoming a “better player” to qualify for the Chess Olympiad in August this year.
“I think it’s still too early to have ambitions for the World Cup 2015. I want to concentrate on my immediate tournaments and focus on becoming a better player by the time of World Cup,” Adhiban told PTI.
“I will be representing India in the Asian Teams in Iran and then I would like to qualify for the Indian team for the World Chess Olympiad on August this year which is a premier event.”
The 21-year-old Indian finished with 6.5 points out of nine to win silver at the Asian Continental Chess Championship in Sharjah and gained an entry to the World Chess Cup 2015 to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Adhiban said it was a great moment and his preparation helped him to hold his nerves in crucial moments.
“It was indeed a great moment qualifying for the World Cup 2015. I prepared well before the event both physically and mentally and it helped me keep my cool in crucial moments of the tournaments,” he said.
“I am happy with my performance, but in the last round maybe I could have played even better and win the last round.”
Asked about the crucial moments of the match, Adhiban said: “Losing to Ni Hua was a crucial moment. But I was quite confident of coming back in the next round and I managed to do it. Last round was very tense, the position kept on changing and eventually it ended in a draw.”
Talking about five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, Adhiban said: “It is a great inspiration for the chess fraternity. Vishy Anand has showed that the comeback is possible irrespective of the situation you are in.”
Asked how can the huge gap between Anand and the rest be bridged, Adhiban said: “I think it is because of the huge competition at the World level.
“Young budding talents (either by pressure from the coach or parents) are focusing too much on the Category events and hence feel very disappointed and depressed when they are not able to perform well in such events and lose the motivation to keep playing. I would like them to aim very high in Chess. They need lot of international exposure, for instance bringing the World Championship last year to Chennai was a big step wherever I went, it was the talk of the town. So more tournaments like that in India would greatly improve the popularity of the game, inspire players and also to bridge the gap after Vishy Anand.”
Adhiban also expressed his gratitude to his family for his success.
“I owe my success to my parents, family, friends, All India Chess Federation and my employer Indian Oil Corporation for the continuous support in my career,” he signed off.
