MIRACLE

NOTE: This story is based on Author’s fiction. It does not apply to any historical references or real-life incidents. It’s my second collaboration work with Magnus after Escape from Trap.

YAMUNA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

UKKADAM, COIMBATORE 

8:30 AM

The time was around 8:30 AM. There were all types of people, from the one who never spoke to the one, who never stopped speaking. The studious specky, who flirted around, or that not much of a backbencher messing around. The one bully, and the one bullied. That “joker” always making fun, to that “serious one.”

From “a bit too girly girls” to “not so girly girls.” The PT teacher in-front of whom the students never spoke a word. The friends Harsha Vardhan, Harihara Subramaniam and Nishanth discussed all absurd things. Harsha vardhan used to come to school to see his crush Srinidhi. PT master asked the students to maintain silence.

“Dear Students. The dates for the school team chess championship have been announced” said the PT master to Nishanth. He asked him to conduct the selection for the team. He conducted the selection and one more guy was selected along with Harsha Vardhan, Harihara Subramaniam. That guy is Selva. These people are from the same chess academy.

They were also studying in the same school. Nishanth said to the team members: “Team. The tournament consists of a team of 4.” Everyone listened to him. While, he continued: “Our team will play other school teams consisting of other players in 4 separate board.”

“What’s the score to win da?” asked Harsha.

“In order to win the game, the winning team should score at least 2.5 points in 4 boards. 1 point for a win and half point for a draw.”

“How the tournament will be conducted?” asked Harihara Subramaniam.

“The tournament will be conducted in a Swiss format. It means every team should compulsorily play seven rounds and after seven rounds, final ranking will be decided.” 

Nisanth also said: “In order to win the tournament, we should have a coordination and trust between ourselves, and everybody should do their role perfectly.” Everyone agreed to his commanding. The team started practicing the team spirit among them and improving their chess game. The much-awaited tournament day arrived. 

The referee asks all the schools to fill their board order and announced their team captain. Nishanth was a very technical captain. He waited for all other teams to fill which player plays in which board. At last, he found a common pattern in the board order it is most of the teams have put stronger players on their top two boards, the last two boards were relatively weak players.

Nishanth gathered the team and said: “Team. In order to win here we should not follow what others do. We should be different.” 

“What is your plan?” asked Hari.

“For a change, I am going to put a weaker player on board one and I will play on board two.”

“Why should I be on board one? I am the weakest player in our team. I should only play on board 4.” Selva asked.

“You act as a shield for our team and take your game long so that even if you lose it’s not a problem because Hari and Harsha will strike as early as possible. We will have relatively weaker opponents on board 3 and 4.” Everyone agreed

So the seeding’s for the tournament were announced Nishanth went to see it. He was shocked. Because Yamuna Matriculation school was ranked 20th on the seedings. He looked for the first seed and was shocked. Because, it was Ganga International school, who had 4 of the best players of the state on all boards. A whistle was blown starting the start of round 1. Nisanth informed all other players to seat on 20th table. 

Hari asked, “So, there are 19 teams stronger than us?” to which Nisanth replied, “Yes. It’s true. But let’s see. Whatever happens we should fight till the end. There were totally 200 teams from different schools. Only three teams will receive the medals.” 

Gangs school captain Adhithya Ponnuswamy said to his friend Suriya Harish, “ yamuna matriculation school team is extremely underrated buddy. Hence, we should keep an eye on their games.” But Suriya Harish overconfidently replied: “Hey. No one can beat our team. Because, we are the top four players of the state. There’s no way we are going to lose even a single game.”

A whistle is blown to start the round one of the matches. Yamuna school was paired against the kg International school. The games started and Ganga team won all 4 of their games within just ten minutes. While Yamuna team’s Selva was defeated on board one. However, Hari and Nishanth won their games and Harsha was in a losing position. Since, he made a mistake in move 5 and he was in deep trouble. So was the team. 

While Yamuna was leading the score 2:1. If Harsha loses the match, it would be drawn with 2:2 and the ultimate underdogs of the tournament will collapse. The teammates of the Yamuna team came with their captain and saw Harsha’s game.

Now, Suriya Harish looked at Adhithya. He said to him: “What? The captain of Yamuna team. You gave over buildup to them. They won’t even come closer to playing with us. Just forget this team.” Looking at the 2nd seeded team, he said: “Go and see the 2nd seeded team.” 

Suriya Harish went to Nishanth. He mocked him and his teammates, to which Nishanth replied: “I know something, which you don’t know.” To that Suriya Harish asked, “What is it?”

“Harsha is a fighter. The most difficult thing to win him is to win a winning position. He won’t give up that easily and if it’s for the team, it is much higher.” Suriya Harish laughed uncontrollably.

“Nice joke, Ha! Ha! Ha! Let’s move on guys.” But what Nisanth just said happened in the game. Harsha tilted the game to a equal position and subsequently won the game. So does the team. Hari went to the coach and informed him about the mocking and bullying in between the game to which the coach calmly replied: “Show your anger towards him in the game when you play with them. Till then, go and take rest. Prepare for the next game.”

The whistle was blown, and the second round had started. Now, Yamuna team smashed the opposition team on all four boards and won with a score of 4:0. It was a huge confidence booster for them. But, when they saw the pairings of the third round, they were shocked.

Because they were against the 2nd seeded team VSB School, who had the same board order strategy as Yamuna school. That is they had their top players play on board 2 and board 3 and weaker players on board 1 and board 4. 

Nishanth and his team was shocked. VSB school had Shiva, who is the number 1 player in the state and Saravana, who was ranked 7th in the state. But, Nishant and Harsha were not even in the top 30 rankings. VSB school was leading the match with 3:0 only. Harsha’s game was remaining. VSB captain asked his teammate to offer him a draw to which Harsha called the captain Nishanth.

“Our team is anyway lost. Just try for the win.” But Harsha somehow could not continue the game. Because he was thinking that it’s a massive defeat for the team. How could they even finish in the top 3. These where the things Harsha was thinking instead of the game. He knew, “If he would play for a win in that position, he would end up losing.” But, the captain forced him to do so. So, he over pushed in order to win with a huge attack with his queen.

Saravana defended very well and once queens were traded, Harsha lost the game. When the coach of Yamuna school came to see the score, he was frustrated. Because his school had suffered a humiliating defeat with a score of 4:0 and situation turned worse.

Since, Harsha and Nishanth were arguing with each other. The coach stopped their argument and said to them: “We will leave from this place immediately. We have four more rounds tomorrow. So you guys go and take rest. If we win those, we can clinch at least a bronze medal.” 

Yamuna team was exhausted both individually and also as a team, they lacked co-ordination and trust between them. All the teams gathered for the day 2 of the tournament. Yamuna team after their humiliating loss was placed on board number 40. In this round they crushed their opposition with a score of 4:0 At the same time, Ganga school lost on first two boards to lower ranked players, and they won on board 3 and 4. So the game was drawn.

The second seed also drew their game by losing on board 3 and 4. Now, Ganga team was facing a super solid team in the form of Suguna school. Harsha and Hari according to their plans striked. Early, they were leading 2:0. They thought they would win this round easily. However, there came a surprise. Selva lost on board 1.

Nishanth’s opponent named Selvam had a checkmate in 1. Hence, Nishanth and the team were tensed. If Selvam had found that move, the game would end in a draw with 2:2. If he does not find that move, Nishanth will win in 2 moves. The timer was ticking. So were the heartbeats of both the teams.

Selvam did not see that move and played some other move. He pressed the timer when Nishanth came to play his move. He was frustrated that he had missed a mate in 1 and resigned the game. Yamuna team was relieved. Everybody in the team thought it was over and there are no chances to receive/get medals. But luckily Nisanth escaped in a knife’s edge. Frustrated, Selvam threw the table and called the referee.

Once the referee came, Selvam shouted with the referee. 

“I missed an easy win.” He shouted holy shit! The referee calmed him down and took him to his room. He found it hard to recover from that game and was heartbroken. The referee somehow managed to console him and asked him to take some rest and come in 10 minutes. 

Nishanth at that point, realized that: “His team’s medal chances would have disappeared because of him.” The referee blew the whistle indicating it was the penultimate round in this round. In this round, Yamuna team was facing the 3rd seeds of the tournament. 

Selva drew his game very quickly and Nishanth won his game. After seeing the results, it gave huge confidence to Hari and Harsha. Now, both of them were against strong players. Hari was playing Akshaya, who is the number 1 female player of the state and Harsha was playing with Nirmal, who is a strong player.

While the game between Harsha and Nirmal was going toe to toe, there was an important decision to make it as to go for a win or play it safe and take a draw. He saw Hari’s game and knew that Hari had a slight advantage, he would win it. Because it was his favorite endgame which is to play with only queens and pawns. So Harsha decided to go for the win wholeheartedly. Somehow he won the game and Hari also won his game.

The score is 3 and half to one and half. Yamuna team started to celebrate and hugged each other. As they had made the biggest upset in this tournament. Nishanth looked for his coach. But he was not there. The coach finally came. 

Nishanth asked: “Where did you go sir?”

“I went to see my friend pa.” He said. The coach said: “It’s not over until it’s over!”

“Why are you saying this now sir?” Nishanth asked.

The coach replied, “I asked my friend did you see how my boys won against the 3rd seeded team. He replied no sir. I and most of the people were busy watching the game of the tournament between the top two teams. Ganga team won that match and they are leading the tournament with 1 point. How could I miss that game between these two teams. They are undefeated till now in this tournament. I seriously don’t know who could stop them from finishing first.” 

The pairings for the final round have been listed it was Yamuna school vs. Ganga school on board 1. Ganga school just needed a draw from this round. If they score just 2 points on 4 boards, they are the champions. Yamuna school has to beat the so-called team of the tournament. 

So, Nishanth and his teammates approached his coach and asked him: “Sir. We are playing with Ganga school team. They have four of the best players of the state and are still undefeated in this tournament. How could we even win them?”

The coach said: “Yes. You’re right. But I would say you a real-life incident. Do you recall about what happened in the Chess Olympiad held in Tamil Nadu recently?”

Hari replied: “Yes. We all know sir.” The coach replied: “The American team had the four of the greatest players of all time. But our Indian team won against them, which consisted of four school boys. The school boys won because they had an important element in their hands which is teamwork and trust between themselves. Similarly yesterday in a Kabaddi match up Yodhas which had 5 great players of Kabaddi including Pradeep Narwal lost to Tamil Thalivas. A team with not a single star player won them. M.S.Dhoni led a young team to win the T20 world cup in 2007 which no one considered them to be their favorites. It is similar to your case also. Fight it out till the end. Have trust between yourselves and don’t play individually. Play as a team.”

The coach points towards each person and says first to Hari to show his anger in the game. Selva play defensive and then looked at Harsha.

“Harsha. I knew Adhithya is your favorite opponent. You have an unbeaten score with him in your past matches. Go. All the best for the win. Nishanth. Play according to the position and take a decision when it matters the most.” The whistle is blown. All the eight players sat on their respective boards for one last time to determine the winner of the tournament.

First board, Selva lost after a hard-fought game. While in the third board, Harsha got the better of Harish and won his game. Hari made a solid draw. The score was now one and a half to 1 and a half. It was the last game of the round. Nishanth had to take a decision. He had to play safe and take a draw to finish 2nd in the tournament or to push hard for a win. 

If he loses, the team will not even get a medal. Hari asked to Harsha: “What will Nishanth do?”

“I am 100% sure. He will not play it safe.” Harsha replied.

Hari asked, “How come you are sure that he will not play it safe?” He additionally asked him, “You are so sure?” to which Harsha replied: “Do you remember the last round of my match yesterday?”

Hari said, “Yes.”

“Then you would know it by now.” The same thing happened in the game. He pushed for the win and got it. So did the team. They were now the champions of the tournament. The ultimate underdogs have done it. 

All four of them celebrated by hugging each other and dancing. The coach called them and said, “Now you know the power of trust and teamwork. According to me all four of you are match winners. Selva in-spite of knowing you would lose more matches agreed to play on board one and Hari was the match winner on round 6. Harsha was the match winner on round 1 and 4. Full credits should go to Selva for sacrificing for the team and at last for Nishanth, the captain leading from the front. Come on boys! You have done the unthinkable beating the best teams. Another whistle is blown.”

“Now what?” Hari asked to which the coach said: “It is the prize distribution ceremony.” The winners of the tournament were awarded a team trophy and individual medals. The next day, they were standing alongside their coach. Few boys from the NCC (National Cadet Corps) came and mocked the coach and the four boys. They asked them, “Did you even win one round?”

The coach came forward and replied: “Guys. You should not speak. Let your game speak for you.” The principal announced their names, and everybody was shocked on seeing the champion trophy. The students at Yamuna school started thinking every year Ganga team will win this one. How come our school did this?” At that point of time, every boy realized that “They have pulled up a miracle without having a single star player. But the thing which stood out among them was their friendship.”