Saturday, April 21, 2007

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?

Yesterday I published the top 10 of an old FIDE rating list - from 1991 as it turned out.

I took the list from Paul Lamford's Editorial column of the September 1991 issue of Chess magazine. He continued...

"It is interesting to speculate how the list will look in ten years time. Maybe one or two of the participants in the World under-18 and under-16 Championships in Guarapuava, Brazil will make an appearance. The latter event was a great success for 15-year-old Dharshan Kumaran of Harrow who scored 8/11, ahead of Onikshuk (USSR), 7.5 and Almasi (Hungary) 7. Dharsan thus become [sic] the first British junior to win two world titles, having won the World under-18 [I assume this is a typo - JB] Boys' Championship in 1988. The World under-18 Boys' Championship was dominated by the Soviet Union who took the top three places (1st Kramnik 8.5, 2nd = Sakayev, Alexandrosov 8). Strisak of Yugoslavia won the under 18-girls with 8.5 while Kurtidze and Kadimova (both USSR) won the under-16 girls."

(emphasis added)


Of course "in ten years time" then means six years ago now.

Darshan Kumaran, I recall, stopped playing chess but I can't remember when or why. Of the others, the name of Kramnik remains vaguely familiar today and I think I've heard of Almasi and Onikshuk too (although I didn't think there was the 'k' in the middle of the latter's name). I'm fairly sure none of the other names have ever registered on my radar.

So, does anybody know anything about any of these people and how things turned out for them?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not entirely sure, but I think Darshan gave up chess to become a doctor. Mabe he will do a Kamsky and return some day. He was sort of a Pinner chess club member- for some reason I can't remember his involvement (I do remember him staying with Pinner at the British in Southport circa 1984. We stayed at Pontins- his Dad thought it was a bit grotty. He was probably right!).
Watford Premiership 2006-07, R.I.P. :(
Andrew

PS Will be hot tomorrow. Wonder how much hot weather training Rob Thomas has done for his London Marathon!

ejh said...

Hopefully you'll still be a division above Leeds next season.

Might any of the girls' names have changed by now?

ejh said...

Konstantin Sakaev is a strong grandmaster.

Alexandrosov I can't find, but as with other names from the old Soviet Union it's possible that there's been a transliteration problem changing it from Cyrillic to Latin script.

That just leaves the three girls and as I say, their names may have changed (I don't know if Lalic, S can shed any light on this).

Anonymous said...

You will never find Alexandrosov, perhaps it is Aleksandrov, a strong GM from Byelorussia.

Khurtzidze play professionally until now.

Kumaran stopped to play seriously.

Anonymous said...

Off topic, but follow Rob's Marathon progress at http://live.london-marathon.co.uk/2007/
number 39283. He did 10k in 1hr 7mins- hope he is pacing himself well!
Andrew

Tom Chivers said...

Can't seem to find Rob at that website at all Andrew . . .

ejh said...

Yeah, it's odd, I can't either. Also, entering Thomas just gets a Mrs Ann Thomas.

Anonymous said...

The search facility seems to work and then not work at varying intervals- not working atm. I assure you he was up there earlier- there were 3 Rob Thomases listed - I figued he was the M35- the others were M50 and M21
Andrew

ejh said...

Which probably brings us back round to our post title...

Anonymous said...

I wonder if they have switched to only listing finishers. This seems a bit stupid, especially as they say they you can track runners progress. Mabe they have moved the progress site to somewhere else
Andrew

Tom Chivers said...

No idea.

I tell you what though, I find just watching the BBC coverage an endurance sport.

Anonymous said...

He did it- 5hrs 9 mins. Ok not the fastest pace ever, but he did beat Haile Gebrselassie (10,000m Olymic Gold, Sydney 2000)! Well done Rob.
Andrew

Tom Chivers said...

Hurrah! He lives.

Anonymous said...

I have a vague, but not necessarily accurate, memory of reading a Guardian article about a computer company and hearing of Kumaran being a worker there.

Still no idea why he stopped playing though. Maybe he realised he got pretty far but chances of getting to the top were pretty minimal when compared to the lack of financial rewards for getting only close to the top.

There were many typos in that Editorial column so the names may well have been spelled incorrectly and the guesses in previous comments are accurate.

Lastly - well done Rob on completing the marathon.

Anonymous said...

In response to Andrew's post, he was studying to be a doctor at Oxford. Incidentally, both he and myself used to be junior members at Pinner CC in the early 1980s! His dad (also a doctor!) used to pick me up to go to the club. And I used to beat him :-) Obviously, he's a bit sronger now!
Shame about Watford yesterday. I read a report saying that Aidy Boothroyd could become England manager one day!
Antony

Anonymous said...

http://live.dresden2008.de/generalize/index.php?g_nid=0107&next=8

Look at the lady who finished 9th at Dresden. I think that is one of the women you make reference to.

Anonymous said...

" Jonathan B said...

I have a vague, but not necessarily accurate, memory of reading a Guardian article about a computer company and hearing of Kumaran being a worker there."


That was probably Demis Hassabis

Anonymous said...

*Anonymous*
ah yes that's probably it.

*SL*
thanks for the link.

*General*
If Kumaran was training to be a Doctor he might well have a lot of time on his hands coming up. Perhaps he'll come back to chess

Tom Chivers said...

I imagine a certain percentage of strong child players are bullied into learning the game by ambitious parents - and as a result, as soon as they flee the nest, they give the game up.