By Paritosh Pramanik
NAGPUR, July 22, 2015
THERE is a touch of Abhimanyu in her success story. Like the Mahabharat hero acquired the war skills of Chakravyuha in his mother Subhadra’s womb, city’s prodigy Mrudul Dehankar, too, learned her first chess lessons in her mother Archana’s womb.
Today, after 11 years, Mrudul Vilas Dehankar is breaking many such Chakravyuhas, winning titles at national and international levels. She has added another crown, the Under-11 National Chess Championship, to her already overcrowded cupboard, at Pondicherry, Tuesday.
The BVM Trimurti Nagar branch’s standard VI student chess prodigy pipped another rising star and her practice-mate from Nagpur Divya Deshmukh to clinch the title.
Mrudul garnered 10.5 points out of 11 with a staggering 10 victories and a draw while Divya secured 9.5 points.
“Mrudul’s mother Archana was doing PhD in 2004. She was preparing a chess programme when Mrudul was in her womb. Mrudul might have learned chess then only,” revealed an elated Vilas while talking to ‘The Hitavada’ from Chennai on Tuesday.
An MSEB assistant executive engineer at Chandrapur Thermal Power Station, Vilas stated that they had to ‘struggle’ for around two years to learn about Mrudul’s interest in chess.
“First we put her at a basketball coaching camp when she was around five years old. But she showed no interest in learning the cagers’ tricks.
“Then, during one summer vacations, we sent her to Adv Arvind Bade sir who used to conduct chess coaching at his home,” recalled the proud father.
“Bade sir saw the spark in her and convinced us to put her in playing chess,” added Dehankar.
This is not first title for Mrudul, who is also excellent in studies. She has recently won gold medal at Commonwealth Chess Championship at New Delhi. Prior to this, she also clinched National Schools’ games gold medal (in April) and SGFI gold medal (in May) at Selam in Tamil Nadu.
Mrudul has also represented country and won gold medal (in blitz) at the Asian School Chess Championship held at Singapore. In the classical event, she had to settle with silver medal.
Mrudul is also selected in the Indian team which will participate in Asian Youth Championship at Singapore from August 1-12. After that she would be donning India colours in World Youth Chess Championship in Greece in October.
Despite the remarkable exploits Mrudul and her parents are still struggling for financial help to keep her globetrotting going.
“We are very proud that our daughter is winning medals for city, state and country but at the same time we feel very sorry that nobody comes forward to help us financially,” said Vilas.
“We have to spend lakhs of rupees from our pocket. At South Africa World Youth Championship we had to spend around Rs 3 lakh. Every international tournament costs at least Rs 2 lakh,” he added.
Funding her tours gets really difficult for Vilas and Archana, assistant professor at Priyadarshini College of Engineering.
Vilas said that there are provisions in government department but the process is too lengthy and tedious.
Appealing to the business community and State Government, he cited the example of Sharang Kapoor. The city player moved his base to Gujarat a few months ago. He won a chess title and the Gujarat Government rewarded him with Rs 10 lakh and a scholarship of the same amount.
“Why can’t this happen in Maharashtra,” Vilas Dehankar asked.
Much like Abhimanyu there are some stages of this financial Chakravyuha that even Mrudul will find difficult to break.
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A fast learner: Mrudul’s coach Gurpreet
GURPREET Singh Maras, himself a renowned chess player of the city, and current coach of Mrudul Dehankar and Divya Deshmukh said Mrudul is a very fast learner.
Gurpreet, who works with Ordnance Factory, said he is very proud that two of his pupils secured top spots at national championship.
“I’m very happy that both Mrudul and Divya won first and second spots. Both are very talented and deserve it,” he said.
On Mrudul he said, “she is a very fast learner. Though I don’t coach her daily, whenever I give her tips she understands well and implements it in her game. I never have to repeat any move or any instruction to her,” said Gurpreet.
“Both Mrudul and Divya will win many more titles in coming years. They fight hard against each other. They don’t give even an inch’s space even during practising,” he said.
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Sadhwani ends 4th
Another Nagpur player, Raunak Sadhwani of Centre Point School, was unlucky as he missed the podium finishing fourth. Though he finished 4th, his score (7.5) was same as that of those who stood second and third in final rankings.
However, because of Buchols tie breaker system Raunak had to be content with fourth spot.
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