Chennai :

Get Manuel Aaron talking about chess and there’s no squaring him off.

Whether it is about his own life, his birth in Burma, and how he learned all about the game from his parents, or how the game was what kept families in Chennai sane during World War II when people were asked to stay indoors with the doors and windows shut, Aaron – India’s first International Master, the country’s first Arjuna awardee from the game, and nine-time national chess champion – has a life-time of stories to tell about chess.

The 78-year-old has finally managed to put all his thoughts and words together over six years to self-publish a 600-page tome, Indian Chess History (570 AD – 2010 AD). Co-authored by chess historian Vijay D Pandit, Aaron released it on Friday at a hotel in T Nagar.

Apart from providing a detailed history of the game, the book has records of all national champions in all categories, as well as 367 annotated games and 397 diagrams, which, according to Aaron, who is now one of the most popular teachers of the game in the city, will help any enthusiastic chess player.

“When I was the secretary of the Tamil Nadu Chess Association in 2004, I brought out a book on chess in the state. This one is kind of a sequel to that,” says Aaron.

So, what kind of nuggets does the book contain? How about this one for starters, says Aaron. In 1925, the Maharaja of Patiala Bhupinder Singh organized a chess tournament, to which he invited Serbian grandmaster Boris Kostic. “The day the tournament was to begin, the King’s 13th wife gave birth to his 32nd son. The entire kingdom celebrated for three weeks and tournament was postponed to the end of the celebrations,” says Aaron, and adds that Kostic had to wait out the entire period of celebration before he could play.

Poor Kostic ended up coming in second (first place went to NR Joshi of India) at the tournament, says Aaron, but was so embarrassed by his defeat that when he went back to Europe he told everyone that he had won. “He even brought out a book saying he had won, but my book says he did not,” says Aaron.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by Kamini Mathai, TNN / November 15th, 2014