'One against 16’ may look like an out of proportion ratio, but knowing the ‘one’ to be one of the top chess players in the world choosing to play against 16 of our children makes the idea more digestible.

Having himself started playing chess at the age of seven years only to reach the grandmaster level at 19 years, British chess grandmaster Dr Nigel David Short (MBE) has always stressed that chess is more of a young player’s game. That is why he was seen playing simultaneous chess against eight- to 18-year-old young players at the Beach Luxury Hotel lawns  last Sunday afternoon during his short six-day visit to Pakistan as a guest of the Pakistan Chess Players Association.

The children, hailing from different schools from different cities of Pakistan, were no novices to the game themselves. All were champions in their own right. Still none of them had ever played against a grandmaster, that too of Nigel’s calibre, so one could imagine their excitement. One could just imagine the boasts on their Facebook profiles later on.

Finally, all the 16 boards were set on tables as the grandmaster stepped in the middle. Choosing white pieces, one by one he made the first moves for all his young opponents as he moved around the tables. By the time he returned to a player, that player had had the luxury to think about his or her next move as Dr Short himself quickly made his move before turning his attention to the next opponent.

Eight-year-old Syed Sarim Wasti, from Hyderabad, who represented Pakistan in the 7th World School Games in Poland last year, was the first one to bow out. As the players kept retiring after getting checkmate, they shook hands with the grandmaster and left but not before setting the pieces on the board again. When Syed Sarim Wasti forgot to set the pieces on his board again, one of the customs of the game, the grandmaster did it for him.

One kid was spotted texting the moves on his cell. That was against the rules. The grandmaster was informed of this by Pakistan’s woman champion Nida Mishraz with an option of disqualifying the boy but the grandmaster let him play after a bit of admonishing.

Finally, there was only one young player, Urooj Yameen-Tahir, left. But even she could not put up a fight against the grandmaster for long. It was all over in 55 minutes.

Later, one young girl Komal Maqsood Ahmed of SMB Fatima Jinnah School said that she knew she never had a chance against such a big player. “I expected I would lose to the grandmaster anyway,” she said.

Another little girl Afroz Bano Mohammad Ilyas also from SMB Fatima Jinnah School, who had Dr Short wondering about his next move a few times, said that they were recieving regular chess coaching in school. “International chessmaster Shahzad Mirza teaches us and makes us practice every Tuesday and Saturday after school,” she explained.

Commenting on the games, Dr Short later said that he enjoyed playing with the children as much as the kids did playing against him.

“This kind of activity is good for children. You see chess players getting younger and younger these days. Players reach their peak in their 20s. The Number One player in the world today is also in his early 20s,” he continued.

“Starting at the age of seven and getting plugged into the playing system in Britain, I became one of the world’s top 10 players at the age of 21,” he informed.

About what he thought of our young players, Nigel was of the view that some children were better than the others. “Still, I’m always looking for improvement,” he added.

“In order to improve, you have to keep analysing your game, for chess is all about simple observation. So I was surprised to find none of the children writing down the moves. Had any of them beaten me, it would then have been a pity that there would have been no record of the game,” he pointed out.

“Yes, we do normally write down the moves, but this was the first time that we were playing simultaneous chess with anyone, and didn’t think about writing down the moves,” said Misbah Yameen when informed of Dr Short’s observation.

The 16 players who had the honour to play against the grandmaster were Zain Naqvi, Nabeel Luqman, Afroz Bano Mohammad Ilyas, Syed ul Hasan, Zain Wahab, Syed Sarim Wasti, Suman Mursalin, Fatima Shabbir, Moiz Waheed, Komal Ahmed, Afhan Bano, Misbah Yameen, Hunaid Hameed, Rafay Siddiqui, Urooj Yameen-Tahir and Hammad Ahmed.