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Eternal India
encyclopedia
SPORTS
(71 to 75); light heavy weight (75 to 81); heavy weight (81 to 91);
and super heavy weight (over 91).
The Ring:
The boxing ring measures 20 feet square inside the
line of the rope and shall not be three feet or more than four feet
above the ground or the base. The platform shall be constructed
level and free from any obstructions and shall extend 46 cms out-
side the line of rope. The corners shall be well padded. The floor
shall be covered with felt, rubber or other suitable approved mate-
rial of the same quality of elasticity, not less than 1.3 cms thick and
not more than 1.9 cms thick over which canvas shall cover the entire
platform.
Gloves:
The boxers shall only wear gloves approved by the
Indian Amateur Boxing Federation with the following specifica-
tions: Boxers upto and including 67 kgs shall wear gloves weighing
227 gms (eight ounces) and boxers over 67 kgs shall wear gloves
weighing 284 gms (10 ounces).
Arjuna Awards:
B. D’Souza (light middle), P.B. Mall (light),
Hawa Singh (heavy), D. Swamy (feather), M. Venu (light), C. Nar-
ayan (fly), Mehtab Singh (light heavy), B.S. Thapa (light fly), C.C.
Machaiah (light welter), Bakshish Singh (light), I. Amaldas (fly),
G. Manoharan (bantam), Kaur Singh (heavy) and Jaslal Pradhan
(light).
CANOEING
A sport of propelling a light weight, shallow
boat, pointed at both ends, by paddles or sails.
The boats were of wooden construction cov-
ered in bark or skin but modern-day canoes are
made from fibre-glass. Canoeing was popu-
larised as a sport in the 19th century.
Two types of canoes are used. The Kayak, derived from the
Eskimo model, has a keel on which the canoeist sits. The Canadian
style canoe has no keel and the canoeist keels.
John ‘Rob Roy’ Macgregor is the acknowledged pioneer of
canoeing as a modern sport.
CARROM
More popular among all people as a recrea-
tional sport especially during vacation time, the
origin of the game is obscure. It has also been
referred to as 'finger billiards'. While the game
took an international hue with the formation of
the International Carrom Federation in 1988,
the National Federation has been in existence since 1955. P. Appa
Rao of Andhra Pradesh emerged as the champion in the first na-
tional meet held at Nagpur in 1956. The women's national competi-
tion was introduced in 1959 and Linda Pinto of Maharashtra was
crowned the carrom queen of India.
In an international meet held in Colombo, Srilanka from 20th to
27th December, 1961, the Indian team led by P. Bangaru Babu won
the men's and women's titles. The team comprised K.Param-
asivan, J.Kumaravelu, Y. Vardaiah, Sheila Menon and Malathi
Menon.
CHESS
Though there are claims and counter - claims about the origins
of the game, it is generally believed that chess is derived from the
. Indian war game of Shaturanga or Chaduranga.
Shaturanga was taken to Persia and developed
into the game of Shatranj. Out of Shatranj
came chess. The English word chess is de-
rived from the French ‘ eschecs’, the plural of
‘eschec’ or check.
The first written evidence of the game ap-
pears in a Sanskrit romance called ‘Vasavadatta’ by Subhandu,
composed in the late sixth or early seventh century. Subhandu
wrote: “The time of rains played its game with frogs for chessmen
which, yellow and green in colour, as if mottled with lac, leapt up on
the garden-bed squares.” Early in the seventh century another
Sanskrit writer Bana wrote in ‘Harshacharitra’ - the story of the
tranquil reign of King Sriharsha of Kanuaj - that: “Under this mon-
arch only bees quarrel in collecting dews; the only feet cut off are
those in metre, only ‘asthapadas’ teach the position of
chaturanga.” The term ‘asthapadas’ denotes boards on which
games are played and the position of chaturanga refers to the points
where the four arms of a mock army were placed.
The earliest accepted authority on chess, perhaps, is Masudi,
an Arab author, who flourished around 950 and stated that Shatranj
had long been in existence. There has, however, been a chess boom
the world over from the 1970s, which was provoked by the unprece-
dented publicity given to the Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky world
title clash at Iceland in 1972. The maverick Fischer beat Spassky
and took the world title. The international governing body, the Fed-
eration Internationale des Eschecs (FIDE), was formed in Paris in
1924 and the first chess Olympiad held in London in 1927, was won
by Hungary.
The earliest reference to women playing chess is mentioned in
the thirteenth-century Alfonso Manuscript, which mentions a la-
dies game invented by the Moroccan ladies. In the 20th century,
however, chess is widely played by women and the first women’s
world championship was held in London in 1927 and was won by
Vera Menchuk of erstwhile Czechoslovakia.
India today has only two Grand Masters (the highest title given
to a player of international repute based on certain FIDE norms to
be fulfilled by the player).
Vishwanathan Anand (the first to achieve the title in 1987) and
Dibyendu Barua. The revival of interest in chess in India, especially
as an organised sport, began in 1954-55 with the formation of the
All-India Chess Federation and the conduct of the first national
championship at Elluru, Andhra Pradesh in 1955. Venkaiah and
R.B. Sapre were the joint champions. Following an invitational'
tournament conducted by a Swiss national, Fontana, a four-mem-
ber Indian team went to Moscow. The national championship was
then held once in two years and in the second national held in 1957
in Poona, Manuel Aaron made a mark. Though Aaron finished
second to Ramdas Gupta of Uttar Pradesh, he did not lose a single
game. Aaron subsequently became the champion in the third na-
tional held in New Delhi in 1959.
In 1960, India took part in the Chess Olympiad at Leipzig, Ger-
many in which tournament Manuel Aaron defeated Max Uwe, a
former world champion from Holland. In the same year in the pre-
Asian Zonal meet, Aaron defeated Suren Mamoo of Mongolia and
qualified for the Asian Zonal Championship. In the Asian Zonals,
Aaron defeated International Master Pardee, a former world corre-
spondence chess champion and became the first Indian Interna-