Dibyendu Barua: The Indian chess pioneer who battled Viswanathan Anand in the race to be India’s first Grandmaster and once toppled Soviet legend Viktor Korchnoi | Chess News
London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama was thick with tension that morning in 1982. Everyone was waiting for a 15-year-old schoolboy who was running late. To save a few pounds, he and his father had lodged far from the city. When he finally burst in, little did the gathered crowd know that the unassuming teenager would soon stun the chess world. But Dibyendu Barua would topple Soviet titan Viktor Korchnoi at the 6th Lloyds Bank Masters. The feat was reported by The New York Times as ‘Indian Turn Korchnoi Into Hastings Pudding.’ Korchnoi was World No. 2 at the time. To this day, many consider him the strongest player never to have been World Champion. He was 51 then but still a formidable force, and was stunned. Rani Hamid, the legendary Bangladeshi women’s chess player whom Barua regarded as an aunt, wanted a photograph with Korchnoi, who was offering the Indian some unsolicited advice after the contest. “His face was red, still disturbed by the loss. When Rani Hamid came up for a picture, …






