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Every day, even at 86, Manuel Aaron gets up from the living room in his Chennai apartment, crosses a corridor, often barefoot, to another flat on the same floor. Here, there are rows of tables and chairs, chess boards and notation books, where every evening 40 children come to be trained by him. After all, Aaron is Indias first International Master (IM) and a nine-time national champion, an inspiration for generations of Indian chess players to follow. I think it is this teaching that is keeping me alive, Aaron says, breaking into a smile.

The Tal Chess club, named after Mikail Tal, a Soviet-time world champion and Aarons hero as he grew up, began in the year 1972, under the shadow of the Cold War. It opened its doors at the Soviet Cultural Centre in Chennais bustling Nungambakkam.

Everything came from Moscow at that timethe chess sets, chess books and clocks. And we could use the place for free. I just had to manage the chess club, says Aaron. Chennai had no other places,other than the YMCA, which barely had infrastructure, where enthusiasts could go and play, and there was thus a steady stream of students. Among them was a certain Vishwanathan Anand.

There is now interest in chess in Chennai afresh, for the city is set to host the 2022 Chess Olympiad, after it was shifted, ironically, out of Russia under the shadow of another conflict, this time with Ukraine.

Aarons rise

Aaron was born in December 1935 in Toungoo, a British colony in Burma, after his parents, originally from Thoothukudi, migrated there due to poverty. By 1941, Aaron was back in Madras, already interested in chess, having watched his parents play. He taught himself chess, his natural affinity for the game making it easier. Most of the players of my generation never had a coach. It was Tamil that I found difficult, Aaron said.

Learning about chess was not easy as Aaron grew up. When he was an undergraduate B Sc student in Allahabad, he couldnt afford to buy the 6th edition of the Modern Chess Opening, which cost 16, until his older sister bought it for him. Decades later, Aaron founded Chess Mate in 1982, a monthly magazine. Now run by his son Arvind Aaron, the latest edition has on its cover the 16-year-old Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa and his stunning win against world champion Magnus Carlsen.

In 1955, after college, when Aaron came back to Madras, he had thought he would be an engineer. Because everyone thought if you became an engineer, life would be good, Aaron says.

There was pressure from the family too. His father often asked him what chess would feed him. But Aaron was steadfast. But it did feed me. I got a job at the Indian Bank only because of chess, he adds. Aaron moved around a lot with his siblings and lived with different relatives. We had a very hard life. It taught me patience, I learnt to remain calm under pressure, he says. It also made him one of the finest defensive players. No matter how good you are as an attacking player, it cannot save you if you do not know how to defend.

His childhood influenced him intensely to be number one. I didnt aspire to be a Grandmaster, but I wanted to be the number 1 in whatever I did. All my life, everywhere at home or in school I had only been number two or three.

In 1961, Aaron became Indias first IM after winning titles that made him the number 1 in Asia. The following year, he was also the first chess player to receive the Arjuna Award in 1962. It was in Germanys Olympiad in 1960 where USSR won and he played against his idol Tal in a blitz match conducted a day after the tournament. To Aarons glee, he drew against the mighty Tal.

In 1971, Russia sent Grandmaster Alexey Suetin to train Indian players for a month in Pune. Suetin wanted the players to show him games in which they had lost. And most of them had lost to me, says Aaron, who was also being trained at the camp. Suetin advised Aaron to change his opening move from d4 (a queens pawn opening) to e4 (the more widely played and traditional kings pawn opening). Aaron followed the advice and in the next national championship, won the title with two rounds to spare.

Anand & Aaron

In 2012 after Vishwanathan Anand beat Boris Gelfand at the World Championship held in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked him where he had trained. When Anand replied that it was at the Tal Club in Chennais Soviet Centre, Putin remarked that Anand was a problem they had brought upon themselves, Aaron says.

Anand was such a nuisance, says Aaron. He used to constantly ask questions and he would never let me finish my class. But he always asked relevant questions. I knew this boy was going to be someone great. Aaron also taught chess using foreign literature, which he translated from Russian, German and rarely French. Anand poked holes in that too, he says.

While he was coaching, Aaron also became secretary of the Tamil Nadu Chess Association (TNCA) for two stints in the 1970s and 90s. It gave him a more formal role to promote, improve and professionalise chess across the state. Spasky and Anand fuelled a spurt in chess, he says. It gave birth to more clubs, and in the 90s, Chennai had tournaments almost every weekend, and the competition was tight. 36% of 66 GMs in India as of 2020 are from Tamil Nadu. Most of the unemployed chess players started academies. There is a value for chess here and more opportunities, says Aaron.

In a sense, Aaron says, life has come full circle for him, with Chennai hosting the Chess Olympiad, which is also the first such in India since the tournaments inception in 1929.

I used to think India couldnt conduct the Olympiad because we have so many uncertainties, natural disasters. We have basic problems in electricity, water shortage.

But now that the Olympiad is here, there is another aspect Aaron feels about strongly.

Do you see whats happening to the Muslims in our country? Arent they our people too? Aaron says.

Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master's in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs....view detail

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Teaching chess keeps me alive: Indias first IM Aaron continues tryst with 64 squares - Hindustan Times