Rajendra Prasad Mohapatra
Bhubaneswar, Oct 28: Grandmaster Debashis Das achieved a disappointing 14th place finish in the recently-concluded Hoeven Open chess tournament at Hoeven, the Netherlands. He could only manage 5.5 points in the nine-round contest with five wins, a single draw and three losses. With the four rating points that he got from the event, Debashis took his current Elo rating to 2505 points.
However Debashis expressed satisfaction here Wednesday about his performance. “The competition was pretty tough. Most of the top players across the globe were taking part in the tournament. Winning five matches there was a great achievement for me,” Debshis said.
“I could have won two more matches had I been more careful. In my efforts to win, I committed silly blunders and lost the games. But it was a good learning experience for me,” Orissa’s first GM added.
Debashis however, has realised that if he has to ply his trade at the top level, he will have to play more international tournaments and avail of proper training methods.
“I need to play more in international tournaments to sharpen my skills,” Debashis said. “But competition at the top is tough and I need to have modern methods of training. Then only can I compete with the top players,” he added.
Debashis had trained in Georgia under Mchdishivil Mikhali to prepare for the tournament in the Netherlands. He described his experiences as fruitful. “The training was hard and expensive. I learnt a lot under the guidance of Mikhali. Apart from the subtle nuances of the game, he also harped on the importance of physical fitness as chess is a psychosomatic game. The body and mind need to be in harmony to adjust to the mental strain and long hours of concentration,” Debashis said.
“But only a single training stint will not suffice. I need continuous training from foreign coaches, which is pretty hard to afford on my part. Even now I have not yet paid the fees of Mikhali. It is very hard to find sponsorships in the state as well,” he rued.
But Debashis has not lost heart. “I am determined to make it big in chess. I have sacrificed a lot for the game and will continue to do so to achieve my goals. My next aim is to achieve 2650 Elo points by mid-2016. I have to take small steps, but I believe a great journey starts in that manner,” he signed off.
