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Making All the Right Moves
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"Atousa,
the undisputed world champion in her age group, now only has a couple of
adult competitors in Iran." |
An
astonished hush fell over the crowd as they watched a little veiled girl take
her place on the World Champion podium.
That little girl, now a young lady of
almost 15, was Atousa Pourkashiyan. Introduced to chess at nine, she was on
Iran’s National Chess Team by 10 and renowned as one of the
country’s top 10 athletes since 13. At nine and a half she was competing in
World Championships and has been adding trophies to her mantel ever since.
She recently won the first place in the
Asian Championships and the third in the World Championships in
Greece. At
the World Adult Olympiads, in honor of her proficiency, she was revered as an
International Master at table one, which is, as any chess-enthusiast will tell
you, an extraordinary feat at such a tender age. After her game with Karpov –
which ended in a tie – the former world champion asked if he could have
pictures taken with her. However the Armenian Grand Master Eva Repkova was not
as lucky and did not escape Atousa’s checkmate. And all this is just a glimpse
at what the veiled queen of chess has been up to in 2002.
Atousa, the undisputed world champion in
her age group, now only has a couple of adult competitors in
Iran. Her
accomplishments become all the more impressive when one learns of the Iranian
Chess Federation’s (ICF) policies and budgetary constraints, which have
persistently hampered Atousa’s career. Even when the ICF has decided to
dispatch her to regional and world competitions, she has been disadvantaged by
not having access to a computer, like other contestants, or by being the only
coach-less participant in the World Championships. Atousa believes that
everything can’t be blamed on budgetary constraints, as it is the ICF’s
internal bickering that has prevented her coach, Hadi Momeni, from
accompanying her at the competitions. Even as the world champion and ICF
representative, Atousa has to pay for her own coach, and is not allowed to
train in the exclusively male ICF. Atousa says: “It’s because we (girls) are
far better than the boys, and have promoted ourselves from the 53rd place in
the world to the 21st while the boys have relegated from 54th to the 61st
place. So I guess they need the extra help”.
Atousa gets her help from the computer, but
hates playing against it. “It has no soul or expression; when you attack a
real person in chess they get upset – you can see their worried reaction and
the psychological pressure they’re under”.
Atousa says: “When I first started playing
chess I thought the board was too small and the time too short. But when I got
hooked on it, I realized it is like a vast sea of knowledge. Deep and endless!
Even the greatest master in the world doesn’t know what’ll happen next, and
that’s where the attraction lies. The more I learn, the more I want to learn”.
Anyone, anywhere can learn to play chess
and this truly global nature ensures the annual competition of over 120 men
and 90 women from over 85 countries in the World Chess Championships. Atousa
plans on learning chess until her brain stops working and will not stop at
Grand Mastery, as chess is one of the few sports where age isn’t a
disadvantage. Well, not unless you’re as young as Atousa and World
Championships make you miss months of school. But Atousa says she always puts
her studies before chess and with the help of teachers and friends has been
able to attain grades of a high standard, averaging 97.7% in year 8. So it is
not only in chess, where Atousa is making all the right moves. |
