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Who was the second Indian Grandmaster in chess?

Dibyendu Barua (born 27 October 1966) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Indian Chess Champion. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1991 by FIDE, becoming the second Indian to achieve the title, after Viswanathan Anand. In 1983, he won the Indian Chess Championship for the first time. He has since won it twice more, in 1998 and 2001.

From a very early age, Barua started showing his talents in the game of chess. By the age of 12, he was the youngest to participate in the National Championship. Apart from the 1972 international feat, the notable achievements of Dibyendu Barua include his performances against Korchnoi in 1982, H Spangenberg in 1996 and M Basman in 1991.

urprisingly enough, his performance was looming at a low than expected after he became the International Master. There was a slow down in his career and it took him nine long years to become a Grandmaster in 1991. Lack of funds made it tough for Dibyendu Barua among the horde of flourishing youngsters.

Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua is still attached with the game of chess. He is now endeavoring to impart his knowledge of chess to the upcoming chess players of the future.

 

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What is ping pong diplomacy?

It refers to the events that led to the thawing of diplomatic relations between USA and China in the 1970s. Read on to know more…

After the Second World War, two superpowers emerged – USA and USSR. The world was divided into two blocs – the Western bloc led by USA and the Eastern blocked by USSR. Communist China had initially allied itself with USSR, but relations between the two neighbours waned in the 1960s. The Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, then decided to use the game of table tennis (ping pong) to make friendly overtures to USA.

The opportunity presented itself during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championship in Japan. American player Glenn Cowan had his team bus one afternoon and was given a ride abroad the Chinese team bus. The incident got wide publicity. Taking advantage of the situation, the Chinese government offered a surprise invitation to the American team to visit China after the championship. So on April 10, 1971, the American table tennis team became the first US delegation to visit China since 1949 when Communists had taken over the country.

The US President at the time, Richard Nixon, decided to act and arranged for a Presidential visit to China in February 1972. Two months later, a Chinese table tens team toured USA.

Ping pong diplomacy became a strategic move by both countries to establish friendly relations with each other and provide a counterpoint to USSR in world politics.

 

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How Snakes and Ladders has an ancient Indian connection?

Snakes and ladders is based on an ancient Indian morality game. It was called Gyan Chaupar by the Jains, and Moksha Patam by the Hindus. It emphasised the Hindus. It emphasised the effects of virtues, which helped one to ascend a ladder, and vices which sets one back like a snake bite. Reaching the last (100th) square represented the attainment of Moksha. A Buddhist version existed in the Pala times in early Medieval India. It was taken to Victorian England.

The modified game was named Snakes and Ladders and stripped of its moral and religious aspects and the number of ladders and snakes were equalized. In 1943, the game was introduced in the US under the name Chutes and Ladders.

 

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How Ludo-Pacheesi has an ancient Indian connection?

Chaupar, Chausar or Pacheesi was one of the most popular gambling games in India. It was played on a cross shaped fabric, with seven cowrie shells as the dice. A throw with five shells facing upwards would give you the highest score of 25, or Pachees. Beautiful sets of 16 gotis in silver were an integral part of the dowries in many communities. The game is depicted in the 5th Century Ajanta frescos.

This was taken to the west in the 19th century as Parcheesi or Ludo (Latin for “I play”). The shells were replaced by dice, and the fabric by board.

 

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How chess has an ancient Indian connection?

It has been universally acknowledged that the game of chess originated in India. It was played in the Gupta period in sixth century. The form was slightly different. It was called Chaturang, after the four branches of the army – elephants, chariots, cavalry and infantry. It was played by four people, who used dice to move.

It then became popular in Persia as Shatranj, and was then picked up by the Arabs. It became two-handed and lost the dice. The modern game of chess is derived from the Arabic version. There is a board with squares found in the Harappan civilization ruins, which flourished 5000 years ago, it could have been some sort of precursor to chess.

 

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What is the Tower of Hanoi?

The Tower of Hanoi is a mathematical puzzle, invented by French mathematician Edouard Lucas in 1983.

Object of the Game:

There are three rods or towers, and on the first rod or tower is a stack of discs of different sizes arranged in the decreasing order of size from bottom to top. The object of the game is to move all of the discs to the third rod and arrange them in the same order. However, only one disc can be moved at a time, and a larger disc cannot be placed on top of a smaller disc.

How to play:

If you have 3 discs, a total of 7 moves will be required.

Move 1: move the upward disc from rod A to rod C

Move 2: move the second disc from rod A to rod B

Move 3: move the disc from rod C to rod B

Move 4: move the last disc from rod A to rod C

Move 5: move the top disc from rod B to rod A

Move 6: move the remaining disc from rod B to rod C

Move 7: move the disc from rod A to rod C

The number of moves increases with the number of discs. For e.g: with 4 discs, a total of 15 moves will be required.

Applications:

The game is frequently used in psychological research and teaching recursive algorithms in computer programming.

 

Picture Credit : Google