KOCHI: Come August 24 and Kochi youngster Pravas K will be sitting across a table at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre playing chess with world champion Vishwanathan Anand.
A research scholar at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), the 27-year-old chess enthusiast has been picked as one of the 35 mathematicians from the world over who would test themselves against Anand in an exhibition of simultaneous speed chess. The event has been organised on the sidelines of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) to be inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil on August 19.
“I have been reading books on chess and preparing, playing online,” Pravas told Expresso. “Shouldn’t we last at least a few moves against the great player?”
However, he concedes that he is an absolute novice in chess and doesn’t stand a chance against the genius of Anand. “It would be a moment to cherish,” he said. He had applied online, including a registration fee of INR 2,400, before being picked to play in the exhibition match, he said.
Although he is yet to play competitively, Pravas has been following chess for the last 15 years. “I got interested in chess following discussions with my friends,” he said. A mathematics lecturer with the Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, Pravas is also scheduled to make a presentation on ‘Root Graphs of Anti-Galli Graph’ on August 27, the concluding day.
Researching in Graph Theory, he was selected to make the presentation after a committee scrutinised his twoyear research findings.
Son of noted Ottan Thullal artiste Kalamandalam Prabhakaran, the young mathematician draws parallels between the problem solving methods of mathematics and the cerebral game played on 64 squares. “Once an aim is set, we need to strategise, persevere and even change course according to developments to achieve the goal,” he said.
Pravas is excited not just by the opportunity to meet Anand but by the possibilities of interacting with the best minds in mathematics at the congress. Held once every four years under the auspices of the International Mathematical Union, the International Congress of Mathematicians is the largest conference in the mathematics community.
Part of an eight-member team from Cusat led by Ambat Vijayakumar, who will be chairing one of the sessions, Pravas is currently busy with the International Conference on Recent Trends in Graph Theory and Combinatorics’ — a satellite conference of ICM’s - at the IMA House here. He has also helped design a website for ICRTGC 2010.