Ramesh RB has many achieved many accolades the field of Chess. When Vishwanathan Anand became grandmaster in 1989, it really got him interested and he decided that he wants to be like him. He’s currently 44 years old and started playing at the age of 12. He has won national under 18 titles twice. His other achievements include British national Champion in 2002, National B champion in 2003 and 2005, Common wealth champion in 2008, National BLitz champion in 1997 and 2009. In 1998, when he was 22 years, he was appointed as coach for Asian Junior Championship in Iran where they won gold in both boys and girls categories. Currently he has his own chess academy names “Chess Gurukul”, which he started in 2008. He was working as Deputy manager in Indian Oil Corporation from 1996-2008, but he quit his job to start this chess training center. He has around 400 students from all over the world, out of which 300 are from US alone.
This year he declined for coaching for the online chess olympiad to be held in August, because he feels there’s no recognition for this sport. Throwing some light on this issue, he said that in the last 20 years, chess has only got one Dronacharya award. The First award was in 1986 and Second in 2006. From 2006 to 2020, there was no Dronacharya award for chess. In chess, no Arjuna Award has been given from 2013, even though India is World’s no 4. In events, close to 190 countries participate, there are around 2000 players and it’s very competitive. Despite making so much progress in the sport, even though we are number 4 in international rating, there are no awards given to players, no awards given to coaches.
His students alone in last 12-15 years have won 34 medals in World Youth Campionships, 14 medals in Asian Youth Championships, In commonwealth, 23 medals and 36 national titles. Chess Olympics happens once in two years, only once India has got a medal in 2014. In 2016, We were 4th, In 2018 we were 6th and he has been the Coach for the Indian Team for olympiads for last 4 olympiads. He was also the Coach for Asian Team Championship. With all this achievements, He applied for Drona Award in 2016, but he was given zero marks and all his achievements were brushed aside.
It’s just a handful of sports that are garnering the medals, other sports are not given importance. In last 20 yrs, Hockey has got 10 dronacharya awards, Wrestling has got 12 awards, Atletics has got 17, and Boxing 14. Only these 4 sports have got most of the awards. If we add dronacharya awards of all other sports, awards of these four sports will be 5 times more. Vishvanathan Anand has won world champonsnip 5 times between 2000 – 2020. India’s Chess performance and Growth has been fantastic. India is seen like a major force in world chess.
According to Govt Policy, If a player wins a medal in international competiiton, he will get money, and half of that money goes to coaches. But in the last 15 years, he didnt get any award for the students achievement, even though around 75 recommendations have gone by the students for him.
We really hope that Chess starts getting it’s required due attention and appreciation!!
The article has been written by Abhishek Choudhery (@AbhishAnchor) in conversation with Ramesh RB @Rameshchess. Abhishek is a BITS Pilani graduate and media and film making students who’s currently working with IndSamachar.
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