CHENNAI: At the Chess Olympiad in 2022, D Harika, then in the final trimester, battled the odds to win a bronze. Three years later, Harika is back in Chennai, this time with her daughter. A few days before the Chennai Grand Masters began, she made it a point to take her two-year-old kid (she turns three in a few weeks) inside the playing hall at the hotel.
There, she lifted Hanvika and put her in 'my chair'. "I made her move the pieces," Harika told select journalists on Tuesday. "That felt good, it's been like 25 years since I started playing chess internationally. It's a nice feeling that my daughter is coming and witnessing what I'm doing in my life.
"I think any mother can relate to this. Guilt happens when you leave your child back. I would love to have her everywhere." But the food and weather makes this a difficult proposition for her so Hansika is left back in Hyderabad whenever Harika travels. "Even now, I don't think it's easy. But this (the tournament in Chennai) is so close to my place. I'm happy she could witness my life in a way..."
There's some context to why Harika was positively beaming when she was talking about her daughter being here. After the birth of her daughter in August 2022, she started feeling the effects of postpartum. "I realised that to heal myself was to keep doing what I had been doing all my life, can't give up," she had told this daily last year. "It was to keep playing chess. Until my daughter needed me, I was there at home."
Before this event, Harika was in Georgia for the women's World Cup where both Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy qualified for next year's Candidates. Does the 34-year-old feel some extra pressure to match the feats of her compatriots in the current women's World Championship cycle? "No, no," she smiled. "I never compare myself with anyone. It's always about me and how to get better."
Deshmukh's win and Humpy's silver again put chess on the front and back pages. It's continued a remarkable run for the board game which continues to dominate coverage, a far cry from a decade ago when news of medals would be confined to clips or brief items but Harika doesn't want to complain. "I wasn't surprised by the media attention," she said. "I am a very positive, optimistic person. I used to reach the semifinals, lose in Armageddon, win bronze medals and there would be no recognition. I never felt dejected. It will eventually grow (is what I kept telling myself). I believe our sport will grow. So it's not like I'm surprised by the media attention. I'm happy that at least I'm somewhere near to that era, it didn't happen after I finished my career."
Results (Round 2)
Masters: Murali Karthikeyan drew with Awonder Liang, Jorden van Foreest drew with Arjun Erigaisi, Ray Robson bt Vidit Gujrathi, Nihal Sarin drew with Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer bt V Pranav.
Challengers: GB Harshavardhan drew with Aryan Chopra, Diptayan Ghosh drew with M Pranesh, P Iniyan bt D Harika, Adhiban Baskaran drew with R Vaishali, Abhimanyu Puranik bt Leon Mendonca