Life in black & white: Everyone’s a player in Kerala’s ‘chess village’

THRISSUR: Their faces are a study in concentration worthy of a Liren-Gukesh standoff in Singapore though the setting couldn't be more different. Two men, one with greying hair and salt-and-pepper beard, and the other much younger, in a lungi, square off under an awning below a palm tree as a crowd hovering around them awaits their next moves. It's a midday scene typical of Marottichal, Kerala's picture-postcard "chess village" nestled in the foothills of Thrissur district, where chess is not a pastime but an obsession. More than 4,000 of the village's 6,000 inhabitants play the game with considerable proficiency and passion, though the village is yet to produce a grandmaster.The villagers here, young and old, men and women, the municipality sweeper and local landowner, play whenever they have time - in paddy fields during afternoon siestas, during school recess, in wayside tea shops, even on dugout canoes that act as makeshift ferries from the village to the opposite bank. The black-and-white board is laid out, the cheap plastic kings and rooks taken out like some precious relics, and it's game on.Technically, it is a match of wits between two opponents, but spectators soon gather, take sides, and whisper expert advice on the black bishop's attacking move or on sacrificing a white pawn to open up space for the scheming queen.It was not always like this at Marottichal. Chess mania here started because of a group of people led by C Unnikrishnan. In the 70s, Marotichal used to be a haven for alcoholics and gamblers. But Unnikrishnan played chess well enough to know that with enough determination and some clever manoeuvring, even a pawn can progress far enough to take a queen.Great gambit: Life's fair & in 64 squares in Ker's 'chess village' Seeing his friend and neighbours being wasted by the bottle, Unnikrishnan set about winning converts to chess. There was a movement called 'Yuva Chetana' that was active then to reduce the influence of liquor among the populace. Led by Father Jails Chettupuzhakkaran, a Catholic priest, Unnikrishnan became active in that movement. Initially, he made little headway, but soon his perseverance saw Marotichal grow addicted to the chessboard.Unnikrishnan, now 68 and fondly called "Unnimaman (Uncle Unni)", recalls the immense support from various sections of people in the area. "Marottichal was a den of illicit liquor and had earned a tag of notoriety. Illicit liquor brewing was a cottage industry here. The youngsters, particularly girls, in this village were finding it difficult to get married. Even taxis were unwilling to come here. Land prices here were the lowest in the district. Now the situation has changed drastically on all these counts," he said.Inspired by the chess story of Marottichal, Mumbai-based award winning filmmaker Kabir Khurana has made a film, 'The Pawn of Marottichal', in which six residents of the village make a guest appearance. "Chess, with its 64 alternating black-and-white squares, becomes a mirror for yin and yang, light and darkness, woven into the fabric of Marottichal. Each square on the board reflects the village's duality, its struggles and triumphs," said Khurana.Gradually, the chess movement acquired critical mass. "We used to conduct door-to-door campaigns to teach chess... We have also been conducting regular chess classes in the schools in our area. We had conducted a house-to-house survey about 15 years ago to collect data on the spread of chess awareness in the village. To our surprise we found that there is at least one member in most of the families who had a reasonably good knowledge of chess,'' said Saji Thanikkal, secretary, Chess Association of Marottichal.Marottichal's fame as a chess village grew when the Chess Olympiad was held in Chennai in 2022. World Chess Federation found it fit to send associate grandmaster Deepasikha March here. "We had then conducted a massive chess tournament by enlisting the participation of over 1,000 players at one place," said Unnimaman.Chess Association of Marottichal president Baby John conceded that Covid had taken a toll on the movement, and its initial enthusiasm dampened in the post-pandemic period. "We are also facing a shortage of trainers, and this has hit our efforts to conduct classes in schools. By and large people appear to be quite preoccupied now, finding it tough to spare time for such social causes. We used to conduct local tournaments when the world chess championship was going on,'' said Saji Thanikkal. "But we are trying to overcome these hurdles and revive the dynamism of the movement by adopting some innovative methods," Baby John said.