As a young chess player, growing up in Chennai, I remember getting chess books from Russian Cultural centre, the Connemara Library and the British Council, not only to improve my game, but to understand and admire the brilliance of Mikhail Tal, Jose Capablanca, Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and so many more.
Even as we enjoyed playing against good opponents, we also had to endure the pain of playing with novices for lack of better options in the neighbourhood.
In today’s time, even as five Indian players competed in the Candidates tournament in Toronto (Canada) to decide the Challenger for the world crown, it was amazing to witness the way chess has grown.
