Author: Atreyo Mukhopadhyay

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay What are pace or medium-pace bowling all-rounders? A breed of cricketers the Indian team has been craving since the retirement of Kapil Dev nearly three decades ago. Many players were tried out. None clicked at the Test level. The noise gets louder each time they travel for a marquee series — mainly in England and Australia — as the people concerned keep pressing the ‘search’ button. After a lot of search and research, the selectors and the head coach have zeroed in on Nitish Kumar Reddy. The player from Andhra Pradesh, who caught attention in IPL 2024 playing…

By Atreyo Mukhopadhyay Chess is one sport where men and women can compete on an equal footing. Or, so goes the perception, because the most obvious factor of difference in physical abilities is not relevant in the game of 64 squares. It’s not that chess doesn’t require attributes like endurance or stamina, but by and large, the contrast in ability caused by gender in other sports is significantly less stark here. Yet, there is a huge gulf in terms of rankings based on performance. The women’s world No. 1, Hou Yifan of China, has an Elo rating of 2633, which…

After the unparalleled highs of 2024, this year was going to be an acid test for the Indian chess brigade. Expectations had risen following wins in the Olympiad and world championships (men’s classical, women’s rapid) and so had the pressure. Previously, their potential was known, but they were not always the favourites. After those waves of success, they are. Nearing the halfway stage of the year, the Indian players have given a good account of themselves collectively. This has happened in spite of the top guns not firing. World champion D Gukesh and world No. 3 Arjun Erigaisi are yet…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay Maxim Vachier-Lagrave had a faint smile on his face, when he extended his hand to his rival immediately after the final blitz tie-breaker game, at the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest late on Friday night (IST). The players shook hands once more while getting off their chairs and the Frenchman grinned again. The player he had lost to, however, presented a face devoid of emotions. After winning his second big title of the year and exchanging pleasantries on the board, R Praggnanandhaa put his participant’s badge back around his neck and started sipping from his water bottle. Looking…

R Praggnanandhaa is one favourable round away from what would be a big win and a continuation of his strong showing in 2025. He is the sole leader with five points at the Superbet Chess Classic played in Bucharest in Romania. Three other players are on 4.5 each. If Praggnanandhaa wins, it’s done. If he loses, it becomes wide open. It he draws, anything can happen. That’s how close and full of possibilities it can become towards the closing stages of elite chess tournaments. Unless there is a Magnus Carlsen running away with it, these are usually closely-fought affairs. Consistency…

Players experience bad times. There are no exceptions. In that way, there may not be a lot to read into D Gukesh’s modest run at the ongoing Superbet Chess Classic in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. After six of the nine rounds in this event, featuring 10 players, the youngest-ever world champion is placed last with two points. He is winless, with four draws and two defeats. R Praggnanandhaa, the other Indian in action in Bucharest, is in the leading pack of four players. The timing of this dip in Gukesh’s performance is critical. Up next is Norway Chess beginning…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay Being a sports reporter can at times give someone a chance to see something unfold — with nobody watching — and then see that bloom into a spectacle in front of a global audience. It’s not about any ‘ah, I knew it’ feeling. Nor has it got anything to do with some sort of ‘I told you so’. Truth be told, it’s largely about the satisfaction of getting to observe something special from start to end. In the 2006-07 domestic cricket season, a few Duleep Trophy matches took place at Eden Gardens. North Zone won the title. The…

One day during his last Test appearance, against the West Indies in 2013, Sachin Tendulkar was watching from behind the nets. The batters were having practice sessions — Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma in adjacent nets at Wankhede. The retiring master was looking at the crop he was leaving behind. They were to travel to South Africa soon. That was the end of the transition phase and a new beginning. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman had called it a day in 2011, and up against Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel were batters who, at…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay A prodigy at 10, international chess sensation by 17-18 and then classmates — so to say — zoom past him. He is still quite good, but a notch below his contemporary players who have broken into the elite of the elite in terms of achievements. That’s how it was for R Praggnanandhaa in 2024. While D Gukesh became the youngest world champion and Arjun Erigaisi went past the 2800 mark in Elo ratings, which only 13 players had done before him, Pragg’s best was not good enough to get close to the players he had known since childhood.…

Classical chess is back after a slew of freestyle and rapid events. This brings the Indians back in familiar territory. After R Praggnanandhaa won the Tata Steel event in Wijk Aan Zee and Aravind Chithambaram prevailed at the Prague Masters, players from the country were low-key in rapid and freestyle. The ongoing Superbet Chess Classic Romania is a chance for them to reassert supremacy. After two rounds in the 10-player, round-robin event in Bucharest to be played until May 16, D Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa are on one point each. There are five more on that score. Alireza Firouzja of France…