The older generation of chess players would remember two individuals with the same name, Sarath. The younger players may have heard or may not. Not their fault. Time passes, things change, those who walk the paths are not required to know the names of those who made them. The paths, I mean.
I don’t know the names of the strongest Kandy players in the 1960s. I knew that in the early seventies Trinity had a good team. Dharmaraja was dangerous but the stronger Colombo teams knew they were beatable with relative ease. Trinity had some names: Wasantha Wettasinghe, the Wickramanayake brothers Lalith and Nalin, Z.L. Mohammed (late seventies and early eighties).
Then it was Dharmaraja and
towards the end of the eighties St Anthony’s, Katugastota that were
respected contenders for the schools chess title. In the boys section,
one must add. Girls High School Kandy has more or less dominated the
game. ‘Forever,’ one feels.
Eriyagama never got to play for Dharmaraja. He was late. Chess was introduced to the school only after he had left. He was however the first coach and Rupasinghe was one of his first students. Rupasinghe, after leaving school, attended the Hardy Technical College and later the Katubedde Campus as Moratuwa University was then called.
I remember Rupasinghe describing his first days in Moratuwa when some seniors had tried to rag him and another friend also from Hardy. They had stood up to the seniors and got them to back off with just two words. ‘Api Hardy’ (We are from Hardy). Hardy had a dubious reputation for being the worst place when it came to ragging.
Rupasinghe was tough, on and off the chess board. He fought hard. And he stood up to be counted whenever someone had to stand up and fight. Most often, it was other people’s causes.
Rupasinghe was soft. He had a ready smile for his friends. He left it all on the chess board and after the score sheets were signed signaling the conclusion of a game, it was all friendship and goodwill that remained.
He was generous (as was Eriyagama) with time and knowledge. All the Kandy schools benefited from their coaching. They loved the game. They loved to teach kids the game they loved. They taught kids to love the game as much as they did. Trinity, Dharmaraja, St Anthony’s, St Sylvester’s, Vidyartha, Kingswood and probably many other schools have benefited from their generosity.
Today chess is played in every single district. Back in the eighties though, there were only a handful of chess playing schools. Rupasinghe, whose work was in the tourism industry and therefore had to travel around the country, didn’t have as much as Eriyagama did, but he nevertheless played an important role in introducing and popularizing the game all over Kandy, in Kurunegala, Matale and even Kegalle and Ratnapura.
Rupasinghe, in his later years, wanted to return to competitive chess and would off and on urge the stronger players of the eighties to play in tournaments. Maybe it was nostalgia. He insisted though that players from that era played a brand of chess that contemporary players can learn from.
Rupasinghe was tough. He was soft. He was generous. He was also an entertainer. He knew innumerable card tricks, for example. ‘I had to spend many nights all by myself when I traveled and so I took a pack of cards to while away the time — that’s how I learned these tricks,’ he once explained.
Kandy. Kurunegala. Matale. Kegalle. Ratnapura. Other places too. There are ‘chess names’ associated with these places. Players and coaches. The youngest of them would not know the history of how chess came into their cities and schools.
‘It’s not important,’ I am sure Rupasinghe would say for such was his love for the game. He may have said it too, knowing him. I cannot say it now.
Other articles in the series titled 'The Interception' [published in 'The Morning']
Do you have a plan? Strengths and weaknesses It's all about partnerships
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