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When India emerged as a chess powerhouse in the late 1990s most
accessible:
commentators could not resist making an appeal to history by connecting
recent events to the ancient invention of chess believed to have taken place in
India. Even Viswanathan Anand did so in an essay for TIME Magazine in
June 2008. But between the moment of the game's genesis, still abounding in
myths and guess-work, and the more recent rise of grandmasters like Anand
and Humpy Koneru, the history of chess in India (in both its Western and
local versions) has remained mostly unknown. No systematic work has been
written on the subject. No biographies of pre-1945 leading Indian players
Past Pieces have been published, other than some literature on Sultan Khan. And, no
significant game collections were compiled. Unresearched, the chess past of
India emerges as a geographically vast archaeological site with a spine-
Olimpiu G. Urcan tingling time-line: between the 1840s encounters of John Cochrane, a Scottish
lawyer serving the British Empire in India, and the rise of Sultan Khan in the
Julius Finn
[Find us on Facebook.] late 1920s. While Western chess historians and researchers remain focused on
by Olimpiu G. Urcan
projects dealing with their own history (some in no better shape than India's),
Translate this page the job requires a native researcher with the linguistic ability, consistent
access to primary sources, and a solid methodology in his toolbox. And,
above all, with enough bravery to embark on such an undertaking. Recently a
work dealing with this very subject was published: Western Chess in British
India by Vijay D. Pandit (The Chess Player, Nottingham 2011, 168 pp., 19),
a Mumbai-based self-proclaimed "chess-statistician/historian."

My Career, Vol. 1
by Viswanathan Anand

Play through and download

the games from
ChessCafe.com in the Seemingly intended for a niche market of collectors and chess historians, the
ChessBase Game Viewer. book was printed only in a hundred numbered copies and stands as arguably
the priciest book from this small publishing enterprise. Could this 168-page
booklet we found in our mail at the end of this month do justice to such an
My Career, Vol. 2
ambitious title? Warning signs came early. Lamenting the lack of previous
by Viswanathan Anand
research on the matter, Pandit decrees, "Indians, in general, are perceived to
be unenthusiastic and unconcerned about preserving their own history" (page
three). Eyebrows remained raised throughout the author's Foreword where we
learned he compiled chess data for more than forty years and planned this
book "over a long period of time." A special note comes as a warning:

The object of this book is to place on record all the available games
played in India (and that includes games played in what is now Pakistan
and Bangladesh) or by Indians during the period 1825-1947 (Indian and
Palistani [sic] independence). That includes a few games played in
England. Excluded from this book are all games played by John
Cochrane and Sultan Khan as the intention is to publish books on both
these players later" (page four).

Such an odd decision is an early indication of the author's artless approach to

historical research and writing: there's no effort to produce a coherent history
of chess in India between early 1800s and mid-1900s. Instead, in addition to a
few pages with scanty details of major chess tournaments in Indian cities
between 1875 and 1947 (pages ten to eighteen), the author, under the disguise
of his clamorous title, merely offers a collection of approximately 330 full
scores of games played by Indian players. Despite the following hype on the
back cover:

The author has made a life-long study of Western Chess in India and
here he presents the current knowledge on matches and tournaments up
to 1947, together with a collection of all known games from the period
1825-1947.

The critical aspect of such a project is in with regards to sources. Among the
major ones cited by the author, there are seven British-based chess columns,
but no local primary materials truly relevant to the topic. "There will be other
games in the chess columns of Indian newspapers and in Indian chess books
not available to the author and publisher," Pandit writes in an effort to hedge
off his bet (page four). Rather disappointing, because the strength of such a
project would have resided precisely in making good use of such local
material and not of a few isolated columns located thousands of miles to the
West. The goldmine of primary material no doubt extant in archives in India's
major cities could have provided a significant amount of unexplored data to
work with. Deprived of any appealing prose and local primary material, we
hoped at least the games and biographical information on the leading players
of various decades would repay study.

To state that Pandit only sparingly provides biographical information on

certain players would be an overstatement. There's just a brief profile of
Kishanlal Sarda of Mathura, an indigenous chess genius who apparently
trained Sultan Khan at the orders of Nawab Sir Umar Hayat Khan, drew Boris
Kosti in a tournament in Chail in 1925, and died a pauper in 1934:

Lala Kishnan Lal Sarda called 'Chadrangwala' was born in 1879 at

Mathura. He was a Buniya by caste. He learned the game at an early age
and soon showed great promise. A famous Bengali Doctor much taken
by his play took young Kishan with him to Calcutta where he soon
acquired great fame, but no fortune, as a chess-master.

In later years he eked out a meagre existence by selling sweetmeats.

Kishan was about 5 feet 6 inches tall, with pleasant features and had a
dark bluish-black colour. He used to wear a khadi topi on his head, a
long white shirt with buttons made of threads, and a short white dhoti,
just below the knee. While playing he used to move his teeth in a round
about fashion just like the lower jaw of a camel, so much so that by the
time he was in his middle forties he had lost all his teeth! He took keen
interest in going through and watching others' games whilst his own
were in progress, giving sound advice to players while discussing their
finished games [] (page nine).

The above comes from a 1967 letter written by R.B. Sapre to Mehroze S.
Vachha and it's based on recollections of one Baburao Sahib. The stuff
amateur oral history is made of. Source-attribution in such critical matters is
not a habit throughout the book and the reader is left wondering if there are
really no written sources that could illuminate the life and career of Kishanlal.

The same can be said of other intriguing Indian players who are featured in
the book with some of their better known games. Aside from some spelling
suggestions (offering "Moheshchandra" for what he believes is the correct
spelling), nothing biographical is offered on Moheschunder Bannerjee, one of
Cochrane's intriguing opponents in the late 1840s. Game scores played by
Moheschunder's are offered in exchange. That Cochrane and other British
players regarded him as probably the strongest known Indian player of that
time, as well as his playing style and opening choices as Black (1.e4 c6; 1.e4
d6; 1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5, etc.), make him a fascinating figure to look at in greater
depth. Yet Pandit leaves us hungry for some biographical notes. Again,
nothing is offered on one Morbhatji Mehendale who won two tournaments in
Bombay and Calcutta in 1909 and was capable of such clever combinative
play, as shown below (game 115 on pages seventy-six and seventy-seven):

M. Mehendale Raja Babu

Beaman Chess Club's All India, Bombay 1909
Giuoco Piano [C53]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.c3 Bc5 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 d6 8.h3
Nf6 9.Qd3 00 10.00 Bxc3 11.bxc3 d5 12.Bxd5 Nxd5 13.exd5 Qxd5 14.c4
Qf5 15.Qc3 Qa5 16.Bd2 Qh5 17.Rfe1 Qg6 18.d5 Nd8 19.Ne5 Qd6 20.Rad1
b6 21.Bc1 Nb7 22.Bb2 f6 23.Ng6 Rf7 24.Re8+ Kh7 25.Nh4 Qd7 26.Qd3+
f5 27.Qe3 Nd6

[FEN "r1b1R3/p1pq1rpk/1p1n3p/3P1p2/
2P4N/4Q2P/PB3PP1/3R2K1 w - - 0 28"]

28.Qxh6+ Kxh6 29.Rh8+ Kg5 30.Nf3+ Kg6 31.Ne5+ Kg5 32.h4+ Kf6 33.
Nxd7+ Ke7 34.Ne5 Bb7 35.Rxa8 Bxa8 36.Nxf7 Kxf7 and White won in
fifteen more moves.

The rise of other leading players in early 1910s, such as Narayan R. Joshi and
Vinayak K. Khadilkar, remains mainly unaccounted for except for game
scores. Especially the latter player, who after winning a Calcutta 1911
tournament went on to dominate the 1920s (before the rise of Sultan Khan)
and made an appearance in the 1924 British Chess Championships held at
Southport. Consider the following win of his over Mehendale in the All India
Championship held in Poona in 1921; the tournament was won by the
mysterious Kishanlal, with Khadilkar on second place. The game was given
by Pandit (without a source) on page eighty-seven of his book:

M. Mehendale V.K. Khadilkar

All India Championship
Poona, October 1921
French Defense [C00]

1.e4 c5 2.f4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.e5 Nc6 5.Bb5 Qb6 6.Bxc6+ bxc6 7.Nc3 Ba6 8.
Ne2 Nh6 9.b3 Nf5 10.Ng3 g6 11.Nxf5 gxf5 12.Bb2 Rg8 13.g3 c4 14.Ng5
Be7 15.Qh5 Bxg5 16.fxg5 Rg7 17.h4 d4 18.Qf3 000 19.Ba3 Bb7 20.Rf1
c5 21.Qe2 Qa5 22.Bb2 c3 23.Bc1 Rd5 24.d3

[FEN "2k5/pb3prp/4p3/q1prPpP1/3p3P/
1PpP2P1/P1P1Q3/R1B1KR2 b Q - 0 24"]

24...c4 25.b4 cxd3 26.Qxd3 Rxe5+ 27.Kd1 Qd5 28.a4 Rg8 29.b5 Rd8 30.
Bf4 Re4 31.a5 e5 32.Bc1 Qe6 33.Ra4 Kb8 34.b6 f4 35.Ba3 Re3 36.Qb5 a6
37.Qc5 Qc6 38.Kc1 Qxc5 39.Bxc5 f3 40.Kb1 Bd5 41.Rd1 f2 42.Bxd4 exd4
43.Raxd4 Ba2+ 44.Kxa2 Rxd4 45.Rxd4 f1Q 01

A 1921 match between Khadilkar and Kishanlal, won by the latter

convincingly, is discussed on pages ninety through ninety-six, but remains
mainly based on post-1945 information from Indian chess magazines and
other secondary sources. The ten games offered are interesting, however.
Consider the following tussle between the two men, which appeared on pages
ninety-four and ninety-five (the notes are ours):

S. Kishanlal V.K. Khadilkar

Poona, 7 November 1921
Game Six of the Match
Symmetrical English [A34]

1.e4 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e6 4.d3 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.Bf4 a6 7.Qd2 d6 8.Be2 h6 9.
h4 e5 10.Be3 Nge7 11.Nh2 Nd4 12.g3 Nec6 13.Nd5 b5 14.b3 Bb7 15.00
Nxe2+ 16.Qxe2 Nd4 17.Bxd4 cxd4 18.f4 Bxd5 19.cxd5 00 20.f5 Kh7 21.
Rac1 h5 22.Rc6 a5 23.Rfc1 Ra7 24.Kg2 Bh6 25.R1c2 Rg8 26.Qf3 Rd7 27.
Kh3 Qf6 28.Rc7 Qd8 29.R7c6 Qf6 30.Rg2 b4 31.g4 Bf4 32.fxg6+ Qxg6 33.
gxh5 Qxg2+ 34.Qxg2 Rxg2 35.Kxg2 f5 36.Nf3

36.exf5!? Rg7+ (36...e4 37.dxe4 Rg7+ 38.Kh1 d3 39.Nf1=) 37.Kh1 Rg3 38.
Nf1 Rxd3 39.Rxd6 was also quite playable.

36...fxe4 37.dxe4 d3 38.Kf2

[FEN "8/3r3k/2Rp4/p2Pp2P/1p2Pb1P/
1P1p1N2/P4K2/8 b - - 0 38"]

38...Rf7?

38...Kh6!? was apparently the best way for Black to continue here. 39.Ng5
Kxh5 40.Ne6 Rf7 41.Nxf4+ Rxf4+ 42.Ke3 Rxe4+ 43.Kxd3 Rd4+ 44.Ke3
Rxd5 with chances for a win.

39.Rxd6 Bc1

[FEN "8/5r1k/3R4/p2Pp2P/1p2P2P/
1P1p1N2/P4K2/2b5 w - - 0 40"]

40.Kg2?

Going after the d-pawn with 40.Rg6! Bh6 41.Rg1 Rf6 42.Rd1 d2 43.Ke2 was
clearly winning for White.
40...d2! 41.Ng5+

41.Nxd2!? Bxd2 42.Re6 was also interesting since Black had yet to prove a
win.

41...Kg8 42.h6!

[FEN "6k1/5r2/3R3P/p2Pp1N1/1p2P2P/
1P6/P2p2K1/2b5 b - - 0 42"]

42...d1Q?

Pandit: " 42...Kf8!! draws." So does 42...Rf8 43.Rd7 d1Q 44.Rg7+ Kh8 45.
Rh7+ Kg8, etc.

43.Rd8+ Rf8 44.h7+ Kg7 45.Rxf8 Qg4+ 46.Kf1 Qd1+ 47.Kf2 Qd2+ 48.
Kg3 Qe1+ 49.Kg2 Qe2+ 50.Kh3 Qe3+ 51.Rf3 Qg1 52.Rf7+ Kg6 53.h8N+
10

Boris Kosti's 1925 visit in India, part of his world tour, received similar
treatment: two crosstables and game scores. The Serbian played two
tournaments, winning one in Bombay in March and finishing second in a
larger tournament held in Chail in May/June 1925. The latter tournament
seems to have been a nail-biter, with Joshi winning with 10, followed by
Kosti with 10 and Kishanlal with 9. Pandit offers eight games of Kosti's
from the Bombay event and ten games of the Chail tournament. A drawn
game against Joshi drew our attention in particular (pages 107-108). An edgy
encounter in which Kosti was forced to play for a win to secure the top prize,
the game stands as a telling example of the annotations the reader may find
throughout this book (we left out a few banal notes regarding the opening to
get right to the point):

Boris Kosti N.R. Joshi

Chail, June 1925
Semi-Slave [D46]

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 c6 5.e3 Be7 6.Bd3 00 7.00 Nbd7 8.e4
dxe4 9.Nxe4 Nxe4 10.Bxe4 f5 11.Bc2 c5 12.Qe2 Nb6 13.Rd1 Qc7 14.b3
cxd4 15.Bb2 Bf6 16.Nxd4 Qf7 17.a4 Bd7 18.a5 Nc8 19.a6 b6 20.Re1 Re8
21.Rad1 Ne7 22.Bc1 Ng6

[FEN "r3r1k1/p2b1qpp/Pp2pbn1/5p2/2PN4/
1P6/2B1QPPP/2BRR1K1 w - - 0 23"]
23.Nb5 Bxb5 24.cxb5 Rac8 25.b4 Bc3 26.Bd2 e5 27.Bb1 Qf6 28.g3 Bd4 29.
Be3 Bc3 30.Bd2 Bd4 31.Rc1 e4 32.Rxc8 Rxc8 33.Rc1 Qd8 34.Kg2 Ne5 35.
Bg5 Qd7 36.Qa2+ Kh8 37.Rxc8+ Qxc8 38.Qd5 Nf3

[FEN "2q4k/p5pp/Pp6/1P1Q1pB1/1P1bp3/
5nP1/5PKP/1B6 w - - 0 39"]

39.Qb7?

Pandit gave this move a question mark arguing that 39.Qd8+ Qxd8 40.Bxd8
would win for White: 40...Ne5 (40...Be5 41.Bxb6 axb6 42.a7) 41.Ba2! Nd7
42.Be6 Nb8 with Bxf5 or Bc7 winning. But such annotations are clearly
wrong. Black can easily maintain a balance after 39.Qd8+ Qxd8 40.Bxd8 with
40...Ne1+! In fact, Kosti's text move is an excellent way to try to play for a
win.

39...Qe8

[FEN "4q2k/pQ4pp/Pp6/1P3pB1/1P1bp3/
5nP1/5PKP/1B6 w - - 0 40"]

40.Qxa7?

Again, Pandit gave a question mark to this move simply adding that "40.Qc6
was playable." The text move is far from being an error. Just exciting chess.

40...h6!

This time Pandit is correct that "Not 40...Nxg5 41.Qb7 h6 42.a7 Qh5 43.Qc8+
Kh7 44.Qxf5+ and White wins."

41.Qe7 Qxb5! 42.a7 Ne1+! 43.Kh3?

"43.Kg1 would have drawn", notes Pandit.

43...Qf1+ 44.Kh4 Kh7

Pandit: "44...Nf3+ 45.Kh5 Kh7! 46.g4 Qh3+ wins easily."

45.Bxe4
 [FEN "8/P3Q1pk/1p5p/5pB1/1P1bB2K/
6P1/5P1P/4nq2 b - - 0 45"]

45...Qxf2??

Pandit: "Joshi misses a glorious chance for immortality by 45...Ng2+ 46.Bxg2

(46.Kh5 Nf4+!) 46...Qxg2 47.h3 hxg5+ 48.Kxg5 Bf6+! wins." While this is
true, Black's position is still decisively winning even after the mishap from
the game.

46.h3

[FEN "8/P3Q1pk/1p5p/5pB1/1P1bB2K/
6PP/5q2/4n3 b - - 0 46"]

46...hxg5+

Pandit makes no mention of the quality of this move, but 46...fxe4! 47.Qxe4+
g6 48.Kg4 h5+ 49.Kh4 Nf3+ would have led to a quick mate.

47.Kh5

Easy to notice that even after 47.Qxg5 Black would win nicely with 47...g6!
48.a8Q fxe4 49.Qb7+ Bg7+.

47...Nd3!

Pandit: "Having missed the win, Joshi now fights magnificently to ensure the
draw. However the veteran R.B. Sapre felt that 47...Bf6 wins here in all
continuations." Pandit is wrong to offer this move an exclamation mark.
Black is winning not only with 47...Bf6 but also with the far more direct 47...
Qf1!.

48.a8Q Nf4+ 49.Kxg5 Qxg3+

Pandit is silent on this believing the game is drawn. In fact, this is a decisive
error. Equality was to be secured with 49...Nxh3+! 50.Kh4 Bf6+ 51.Qxf6
gxf6 52.Bd5 Ng5 53.Qg8+ Kh6.

50.Kxf5 Bf6 51.Qxf6 g6+ and here the game ends as a draw although is not
certain why since White has a clear advantage.

Although Kosti no doubt gave a multitude of exhibitions and played

countless offhand games against various top Indian players, only one such
game is recovered and offered by Pandit. Perhaps equally frustrating is the
author's take on the 1930s. With Sultan Khan's games and career saved for
later publication, what about Miss ["Ghulam"] Fatima, the mysterious Indian
player who made news in England at the same time? Pandit offers absolutely
nothing fresh on the subject, only pithy information culled from the British
Chess Magazine and three instances of her play in England, which are all well
known by now (pages 118-119). Another lost opportunity to provide well-
researched information on an exciting figure of Indian chess, who once
claimed she taught chess to Queen Mary, George V's wife (see Fatima's TV
appearance in "The Sultan of Chess" on UK's Channel 4 on September 19,
1990.)

Concerning the game sources, most of the games between 1828 and late
1860s are taken from Loose Indian Chess Leaves, a well-known Cochrane
manuscript. Most games between 1870s and early 1900s come from some
mainstream British newspaper column such as Illustrated London News, The
Field, and Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. Some post-1945
secondary sources are used for games of the 1920s-1940s, but most of the
games do not have a clear historical source. In addition, at least a minimum of
accuracy when sources are mentioned seems to be problematic. Here's an
example: on pages thirty-two and thirty-three, while giving the full score of a
game between V. Green and Moheschunder starting with 1.e4 c6, the author
says the game was played in "India, 1854" and the source was given as
"Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper, c. 1854". In Edward Winter's Kings,
Commoners and Knaves (1999), we notice that at page 168, while discussing
some samples of the earliest Caro-Kann Defence, this game was mentioned
along with the exact source: page eleven of Cassell's Illustrated Family
Paper, 16 July 1859.

We end this review with the following forgotten correspondence game played
by Khadilkar against a strong British player. We recall seeing the score in
Hermann Helms' column in The Evening Post (New York) of September 7,
1918. It was prefaced as follows:

Little is heard over here concerning chess activity among the natives of
India, but, as a matter of fact, the grade of skill in that mystic land, to
which some, in fact, have ascribed the origin of the game, is quite high,
and needs only international intercourse, for which the war is paving the
way, for its full development. N.J. Roughton, formerly of Oxford, who
headed the Oxford-Cambridge team in the cable match won by the
American colleges in 1909, and now in Nagpur, India, is doing his bit in
that direction. In two correspondence games with V.K. Khadilkar, of
Sangli, he won a game and lost one.

The game does not appear in Pandit's game collection:

V.K. Khadilkar N.J. Roughton

Game by Correspondence, 1918
Ruy Lopez [C64]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.c3 f5 5.d4 exd4 6.e5 dxc3 7.Nxc3 Nge7 8.
Qe2 Bb4 9.Bc4 b5 10.Bb3 Na5 11.Ng5 Nxb3 12.axb3 Nd5 13.00 Bxc3 14.
bxc3 00 15.Qxb5 Nb6 16.f4 h6

[FEN "r1bq1rk1/p1pp2p1/1n5p/1Q2PpN1/
5P2/1PP5/6PP/R1B2RK1 w - - 0 17"]
17.Be3 c6 18.Bxb6 cxb5 19.Bxd8 Rxd8 20.Nf3 Bb7 21.Nd4 b4 22.cxb4 Be4
23.Rfc1 a6 24.Kf2 g5 25.g3 Kf7 26.Ke3 Rdb8 27.fxg5 hxg5 28.g4 Rxb4 29.
gxf5 Bc6 30.Nxc6 Rxb3+ 31.Kd4 dxc6 32.Rxc6 a5 33.Rc7+ Kg8 34.e6 a4
35.Rg1 Rb4+ 36.Kc3 Rh4 37.Rxg5+ Kh8 38.e7 10

On the positive side, Pandit's work does offer 330 games of interest. But
scores of games alone do not make relevant (and enlightening) historical
chess writing. Helms admired Khadilkar's skill in the game above, which he
shared with his readers, but he knew little about the Easterner's life and
subsequent career. Sadly, more than ninety years later, with Pandit's new
work we have not made much progress. The appeal to the Indian primary
sources is nearly non-existent and thus the lives and careers of intriguing
players such as Ghulam Kassim, Moheschunder Bannerjee, Morbhatji
Mehendale, Kishanlal Sandra, Narayan R. Joshi, and Vinayak K. Khadilkar
remain as persisting mysteries.

With the minute information from Western chess columns and magazines, and
bare game scores offered by Pandit, an enthusiastic and concerned reader is
left, often frustratingly, wanting more. This is where the author's research fell
short considerably. A subject of such magnitude requires a more extensive
effort, not only in terms of outreach to primary sources but also in a
geographical sense. "British India" is an exceptionally vast research zone and
perhaps a team of skilled researchers across India would be able to contribute
in a much more systematic way with specific, archive-based research. The
subject is worth it. Writing this column from the Far East, we are keenly
aware of how very little we know on how chess developed not only in the
Indian subcontinent, but also in China, Japan, the Malaysian Peninsula, the
Philippines, and the Indonesian archipelago between the mid-1850s and late
1940s. To succeed, any such project demands a strenuous effort to research
and interpret local historical data to a satisfactory level of complexity that
should go far beyond a collection of game scores.

2011 Olimpiu G. Urcan All Rights Reserved.

Interested readers, authors, collectors, researchers, or librarians are

encouraged to contact the author.

Comment on this month's column via our Contact Page! Pertinent responses
will be posted below daily.

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