Final yr an e mail landed within the inboxes of three of India’s high prodigies — D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi — asking them a query that they by no means needed to reply earlier than. The crew administration of the Alpine SG Pipers wished to know what they want their jersey numbers to be.
On the World Chess League, a few of the world’s finest gamers have needed to confront the jersey quantity query a lot earlier than they get to different vexing questions over the chess board.
Praggnanandhaa contemplated the query for some time and determined he wished No 10. It was not solely his date of delivery but additionally the quantity that legendary athletes like Sachin Tendulkar and Lionel Messi had sported on the again of their jerseys.
However another person on his crew had the identical thought.
“I replied to the e-mail about seven hours later. However Gukesh had replied earlier asking for No 10. So ultimately, final time I ended up with No 7. It’s what Cristiano Ronaldo and MS Dhoni wore. And final season labored out nicely for me. So this time I picked the identical quantity once more,” Pragg tells The Indian Specific with a smile.
5-time world champion Viswanathan Anand had it straightforward for his alternative. However there have been loads of questions on the decide, No 64.
“64 has turn out to be type of my factor. Vishy64TheKing is my Twitter deal with. It’s turn out to be an everlasting joke,” Ganges Grandmasters’ icon participant Anand tells The Indian Specific. “However folks see it and ask me ‘Oh had been you born in 1964?’ I’ve to inform them that I used to be born in 1969 however 64 is what number of squares there are on the chessboard!”
And identical to Pragg, American Gambits icon star Hikaru Nakamura additionally was denied his preliminary decide for the quantity on his again.
“I didn’t decide my quantity. I principally picked No 1 or No 5. They didn’t have it. So I simply advised them to select one!” shrugs the World No 2 who additionally wears the No 2 jersey.
Vidit Gujrathi, too, was denied his decide of No 4 as a result of another person had received there earlier than him. He smiles as he says he won’t reveal why he wished No 4 however provides: “When that was not accessible, I picked No 1. Levon Aronian (enjoying for Triveni Continental Kings) picked it final time they usually received the match. So I took that as nicely.”
Sachin and Dhoni aren’t the one cricketers who’ve made it simpler for gamers on the GCL to determine their jersey numbers. Present India captain Rohit Sharma’s jersey quantity 45 additionally discovered a taker in upGrad Mumba Masters’ Raunak Sadhwani, who says the Mumbai cricketer is his favorite, which made him decide the jersey quantity as nicely.
Confronted by a query that they hardly ever ever face in a sport the place they principally play in enterprise fits, some have picked numbers which have particular which means for them.
Harika Dronavalli, who led the Indian ladies’s crew to the gold medal on the recently-concluded Chess Olympiad in Budapest, says when she was requested to select a jersey quantity, she was dumbfounded initially, Then she ended up selecting her daughter’s birthdate — 24 — as a result of it was the one quantity that got here in her thoughts. She had, in fact, competed within the earlier Olympiad whereas pregnant.
Ganges Grandmasters’ Arjun Erigaisi picked No 3 as a result of he was born on September 3, 2003.
PBG Alaskan Knights Nihal Sarin confesses he had no function in selecting the quantity on his again: 13. Whereas the remainder of the world may take into account it unfortunate, Nihal chuckles: “My supervisor selected it as a result of I used to be born on July 13. I do know it’s thought of unfortunate. However I’m hoping to vary that.”
