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Chess Olympiad: Getting ready for big stage
CHENNAI: In an interview with TNIE, Narayanan spoke about what the team has done over the last month, the focus on building team spirit, why they want to keep things 'relaxed and casual' and how he is juggling between accepting individual player requests but at the cost of the team. Excerpts:
On the focus before the Olympiad
Everyone has been working on their individual things. As a team, the main focus area has been on building a sense of togetherness and working on team spirit. So, we have created a WhatsApp group, having group calls, plans on spending time together in Budapest and just coming up with ways where we can spend time together.
On what they did during the online camp
We had some activities during the training camp. During the tournament, there's generally not a lot of time (to spend time together). We hardly have time, dinner is the time when we can socialise. Apart from that, a few players prefer to hit the gym after the game. So that's another place where we can do things as a group.
The camp itself was via zoom calls. Personally, I feel it's not important (lack of a physical camp) because... it's a group that's already familiar with each other. It's not like they are coming together for the first time. I feel like we can all pick up where we left off.
On the feedback from the players and the pressures of being seen as one of the favourites
I do think we are one of the favourites for gold. Having said that, we don't really mention or talk about it. I would say the gold is like the process of checkmate in chess. You know the goal is to eventually checkmate but in order to do that, you need to do a number of smaller things... develop your pieces, control your centre and the attention goes towards accumulating your smaller goals.
We have the destination in sight but it's something we don't obsess over. Everyone has an idea of what needs to happen to win gold. The important rounds, when things get critical and leading up to it. Although it's a younger team, they have a wealth of experience.
They have featured in a lot of tournaments. There's clarity. So it's about going there and executing it. It's also about keeping things relaxed and casual. The biggest enemy in such a situation is the internal pressure.
On balancing that expectation and ensuring the team has fun and not allowing pressure to eat them all
I don't have to do a lot as captain on this one. One of the things that can help in such situations, especially in a team event, is generally all the players don't tend to be in the peak of their form. So, in those situations it can help to spend time and hangout together. Someone who's not in the best shape can hangout with someone who's in good form and it can rub off. Having a positive environment, it's easier said than done in general. Within a group, there can be small frictions, misunderstandings. But with a younger group, it's all the more easier. They still tend to have more flexibility and things haven't been built up over the years.
On accepting individual player requests but guarding against that affecting team dynamics (Gukesh put his hands up and wanted to play top board in 2022 and the captain accepted it)
Over the years, everyone also understands a bit better that while they have personal preferences, the needs of the individual can be different from the needs of the team. That makes it easier to make decisions because you make decisions prioritising the group over the individual. While personal preferences are not something irrelevant because people do need to be in a good frame of mind, you need to evaluate how it affects other people within the team or the team as a whole. You need to have a proper balance; it's not like you can adopt a stance where you say yes to all personal preferences or say no to all personal preferences.