If ever there is a home for chess in New Delhi, it is the Botwinnik Chess Academy. An affiliate of the Delhi Chess Association, it was founded in 1979 and is located in the prestigious USSR House of Soviet Science, Culture and Art at 24, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi. It has been named after Botwinnik, an all-time great in chess. He was world champion for 16 years and was awarded the International Grandmaster's title in 1950.It is a premier chess academy in the capital and is engaged in the promotion and development of chess, not only in Delhi, but all over the country. And it is backed by the Bhilwara Group, which has been associated with chess for almost two decades now. Several young schoolboys and girls are enlisted in the academy and are given top-class training by experts and national-ranked players.
The then Soviet Ambassador to India, Mr Warren Shah, was kind enough to take the initiate after seeing the interest shown by the House of Bhilwara in the game of chess. They provided space in their
Culture centre in the Capital for providing teaching facilities to young children.
In fact, Botwinnik graced the inaugural function of the fourth Bhilwara Grandmasters' International Chess Tournament at the Botwinnik Academy in 1987. The event, which was held annually for some years after that gave ample opportunity for the top chess players of India to improve their ratings and attaining IM or GM norms.
It is the most familiar haunt for all chess lovers in Delhi and in the eighties it hosted a lot of top class International Grand Masters tournament. The star cast in those included the cream of Indian chess -- V Anand, Pravin Thipsay, Dibyendu Barua. Incidentally it was in the Bhilwara tournament here that Thipsay and Barua became International Masters in 1982. Indian IMs like Raja Ravisekhar, TN Parameswaran and Sharad Tilak were permanent fixtures in these tournaments.
Among the foreign stars who came over were Maya Chiburdanidze, then one of the finest women players in the world. Mark Taimanov too
took part once as did Kuzmin.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
