Path of victory

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"I have always considered it a great honour for every chess player to deserve the smile of fortune” said Mikhail Tal, late chess grandmaster.

On April 7, Kerala’s International Master K. Ratnakaran had his smile of fortune when he won the last round of All India FIDE rated chess tournament at Kozhikode and bagged the coveted title.

Luck played its charm for Ratnakaran as another contemporary player Ram S Krishna failed to win his final round game. Had Ram won that game, Ratnakaran would have slipped to the second slot.

Thus, the late chess genius Tal’s words came true for him as the lucky charm played its part for his success.

“It was an exciting tournament. At least four players were in the race for the title till the last round,” said Ratnakaran who had earlier this year triumphed in another FIDE rated championship at Chennai.

However, by measure of comparison, the Kozhikode tournament stands below par to its preceding tournament, which was attended by one grandmaster (R R Laxman) and eight IMs(International Masters). Only one another IM in D P Singh had attended the Kozhikode tournament.

But, the competition in it was immense as after the penultimate round, six players had 7 points while Ram and Ratnakaran were into an intense battle with 7.5 points each.

“The last couple of months had been really great for me. I could win two All India FIDE rated in a span of two months and my rating is expected to improve by at least 25 points,” said Ratnakaran.

Last May, he had also won the Air Marshal Subroto Memorial Chess Tournament at Nagpur. Currently with an ELO rating of 2394, Ratnakaran is making a steady comeback into the mainstream.

His best ELO rating was 2488, which was three years back when he finished national second. The win at Kozhikode and an earlier triumph at Chennai signalled a change in the IM’s career profile.

Interestingly, the best part of his career if you ask him is playing English grandmasters Nigel Short and Michael Adams online.