Chess in the time of dengue

This one takes the phrase ‘against all odds’ to a different level.Battling dengue, nine-year-old Mumbai girl Ananya Gupta bagged a bronze in the Under-9 category of the Maharashtra State Chess Championships that concluded on September 29. That’s not all, she went on to win a silver two days later in the Mumbai School Sports Association (MSSA) inter-school chess championships in the Under-10 category.The DY Patil International School girl was admitted to Lilavati Hospital on September 24 with dengue, after her platelet count fell and the haemoglobin levels rose alarmingly.And at a time when playing chess might have been the last thing on one’s mind, Ananya wanted to participate in the state championships starting on September 26. Though her condition had improved, her parents and doctors advised her against playing. However, she was adamant.“I wanted to participate and not quit,” Ananya told dna on Friday. “I told myself such things happen. I was sure that I wanted to play, since I had been practising for the last one month. I just stopped thinking about my illness.”Although the doctors warned her parents that if her condition worsened, she’d have to be re-admitted, unperturbed Ananya went straight from the hospital to the venue in Bandra.“It was very difficult for us,” Ananya’s father, Rishi, said. “We didn’t want her to play but she stuck to her guns. Eventually, we agreed because that’s what she really wanted and was passionate about.”A complete blood count (CBC) test was done on her before every game, and she was constantly fed fluids.“My mother would keep some fluids on the table every 30 minutes, and I would just gulp it down without any distractions,” Ananya said.Much against expectations, she withstood the immense physical and mental exertion to win the bronze.However, she wasn’t satisfied and wanted to take part in the inter-school tourney too, which began two days later on October 1.“We thought she would rest after the states, but she just didn’t want to. Her face used to go red often, and she got rashes. But it seemed nothing affected her,” Rishi said.It sure didn’t. She clinched the silver among 136 girls in the U-10 category, and only then did she afford herself some rest.“We could see the difference in her game, since she was under a lot of stress,” Ananya’s mother, Himangi, said. “But I think chess helped her. The more she played, the better she felt.”Ananya started playing chess at the age of six. “I used to be a gymnast and a runner too, but I loved chess because it is a memory game, and my memory is very good,” she said, rather proudly.A product of the South Mumbai Chess Academy, Ananya now coaches under Nagpur’s Aakash Thakur and Anup Deshmukh. That she is a champion was proven when she won the bronze in the World Schools Chess Championships in Greece in May this year.And if one thinks she is now resting, she is excited about the forthcoming World Championship between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in Chennai. “I will be going South to watch the contest,” she said.“I am a huge fan of Carlsen because he is became the youngest Grandmaster. My dream is to be the youngest GM,” she said. However, she adds, “I like Anand too.”She met Anand in Pune before leaving for Greece. “He told me to keep calm always and focus on the game,” she recalled.It seems she’s following that to the hilt.