ICC is an initialism, which may refer to:

Organizations[link]

Political[link]

• International Control Commission, which oversaw the 1954 Geneva Accords ending the First Indochina War
• International Communist Current, a communist organization
• Interstate Commerce Commission, a now defunct US Government regulatory body
• Inuit Circumpolar Council, a non-governmental organization representing several peoples in the far north
• Islamic Clerics Committee, a grassroots leadership group in Iraq
• Isthmian Canal Commission, a body set up to administer the Panama Canal Zone

Human rights and law, United Nations[link]

• International Christian Concern, a non-denominational Christian human rights non-governmental organization watchdog group
• International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions
• International Criminal Court, for war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and genocide
• UN-International Computing Centre or UNICC: a United Nations inter-organization facility created in 1971 to provide electronic data processing services

Religion[link]

• Irish Council of Churches

Sports[link]

• International Cricket Council, the global cricket governing body
• Indiana Collegiate Conference, a defunct American collegiate athletic conference
• International Co-ordination Committee of World Sports Organizations for the Disabled, 1982–1989

Business[link]

• Industrial Credit Company, (later Industrial Credit Corporation) purchased by the Halifax (Irish bank)
• ICC Records, a UK charitable-status Christian record production and distribution company
• Information Control Corporation, an Information Technology consulting firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio
• Innovative Communications Corporation, a telecommunications company in the United States Virgin Islands
• International Chamber of Commerce, supporting global trade and globalisation
• International Code Council, building safety and fire prevention membership association
• International Controls Corporation, an American holding company founded by Robert Vesco
• Internet Chess Club, a commercial chess playing internet site

Cultural[link]

• Inter-Cooperative Council at the University of Michigan, a student housing cooperative in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• International Churches of Christ, a group of Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement Christian churches
• NTT InterCommunication Center, a media art gallery in Tokyo, Japan
• Indian Cinematograph Committee, an Indian government committee overseeing censorship and cinema
• International Christian Churches, a group of Stone-Campbell Restoration churches led by Kip McKean and split off from the ICOC

Standards and regulatory bodies[link]

• Illinois Commerce Commission
• International Association for Cereal Science and Technology, formerly International Association for Cereal Chemistry
• International Color Consortium, a standards body for computer color management
• International Conference on Communications, an academic conference for engineers

Science and technology[link]

• Immunocytochemistry, interaction of chemicals with immune responses of cells
• Interstitial cell of Cajal
• Smart card also known as an Integrated circuit card or Integrated chip card, an integrated circuitry embedded into a flat, plastic body
• Intraclass correlation or Intraclass correlation coefficient
• I_CC is the transistor collector current in NPN bipolar junction transistors
• Intel C++ Compiler
• Infinite conjugacy class property or ICC group in mathematics
• international calling code, a prefix to call to a phone number from abroad
• immediate cord clamping in labor and delivery (medicine)

Schools[link]

United Kingdom[link]

• Icknield Community College, a comprehensive school in Watlington, Oxfordshire
• Ifield Community College, a school in Crawley, West Sussex
• International Christian College, Glasgow, Scotland
• Irlam and Cadishead College, Irlam, Salford
• Ivybridge Community College, a secondary school in Ivybridge, Devon

United States[link]

• Illinois Central College, main campus in East Peoria; two campuses in Peoria, one in Pekin, Illinois
• Independence Community College, a community college in Independence, Kansas
• Isothermal Community College, a community college in Spindale, North Carolina
• Itasca Community College, a community college in Grand Rapids, Minnesota
• Itawamba Community College, campuses located in Fulton and Tupelo, Mississippi
• Izard County Consolidated High School, a school district in Brockwell, Arkansas

Other[link]

Look up icc in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Commerce Clause, also known as the Interstate Commerce Clause and Indian Commerce Clause, an enumerated power of the United States Constitution
• Imperial Camel Corps, an historic British Commonwealth military unit
• Incarnation Children's Center, New York orphanage
• Integration Competency Center
• Intelligence Coordination Center of the United States Coast Guard
• International Camarilla Conference, a yearly gathering of the Camarilla (fan club) branch of White Wolf Publishing
• International Certificate of Competence for Operators of Pleasure Craft, a boating license for European coastal waters and inland waterways
• International Commerce Centre, a superskyscraper in Hong Kong
• International Computation Centre, in Rome, Italy, created by UNESCO in 1951, later transformed into the Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics
• International Computing Centre, in Geneva, established by the UN in 1971
• International Conference on Creationism
• International Convention Centre, any of several convention centers
• International Cricket Captain (series), a video game series about cricket management
• Internationales Congress Centrum Berlin
• Interstellar Confederation of Corporations, in the MMORPG Anarchy Online
• Maryland Route 200 also known as Intercounty Connector or ICC, a highway being constructed in Maryland

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Hikaru Nakamura
Full name	Hikaru Nakamura
Country	United States
Born	(1987-12-09) December 9, 1987 (age 24) Hirakata, Osaka, Japan
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2775 (May 2012) (No. 7 in the May 2012 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating	2775 (May 2012)

Hikaru Nakamura (中村光, Nakamura Hikaru^?) (born December 9, 1987 in Hirakata, Osaka, Japan) is an American chess Grandmaster (GM). He is ranked among the top seven players in the world by FIDE as of May 2012, and is the current United States Chess Champion.

Nakamura's first supertournament victory came at Wijk aan Zee 2011, finishing clear first ahead of the four top-rated players in the world in a performance described by former World Champion Garry Kasparov as better than any tournament by Bobby Fischer, and the best by an American in more than 100 years.^[1]

Nakamura is the top USCF rated player at 2858, as published on 1 February 2012.

Early life[link]

Nakamura was born in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, to a Japanese father and an American mother. At the age of two, he moved with his parents to the United States. He began playing chess prior to the age of five and was coached by his Sri Lankan stepfather, FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry.

Chess prodigy[link]

At age 10 years and 79 days, Nakamura achieved the title of chess master from the United States Chess Federation (USCF), becoming the youngest American ever to earn the title and breaking the record previously set by Vinay Bhat; Nakamura's record stood until 2008 when Nicholas Nip achieved master at the age of 9 years and 11 months. In 1999, Nakamura won the Laura Aspis Prize, given annually to the top USCF rated player under the age of 13. In 2003, at age 15 years and 79 days, Nakamura solidified his reputation as a chess prodigy, becoming the youngest American to earn the grandmaster title, breaking by three months the record of Bobby Fischer. This record has since been broken by Ray Robson.

Chess career[link]

Nakamura is generally regarded as an aggressive player who is reluctant to draw games early, having once said in an interview that "there is no point of taking draws".^[2] He prefers instead to exploit all prospective winning chances, giving him a style of play described by the U.S. Chess Federation as marked by "astonishing creativity...relentless determination...[the making] of unexpected moves and a will to win".

Formerly a resident of White Plains, New York, Nakamura often played in the weekly New York Masters chess tournament at the Marshall Chess Club, which he won several times. He currently lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

In April 2004 Nakamura achieved a fourth-place finish in the "B" group at the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee.^[3]

Nakamura qualified for the 2004 world chess championship, contested in Tripoli, Libya, and reached the fourth round, defeating grandmasters Sergey Volkov, Aleksej Aleksandrov, and Alexander Lastin before falling to England's Michael Adams, the tournament's third-seeded participant and eventual runner-up.

On June 20, 2005, Nakamura was selected as the 19th Frank Samford Chess Fellow, receiving a grant of $32,000 to further his chess education and competition.^[4]

Nakamura won the 2005 U.S. Chess Championship (held in November and December 2004), scoring seven points over nine rounds to tie grandmaster Alex Stripunsky for first place. Nakamura defeated Stripunsky in two straight rapid chess playoff games to claim the title and become the youngest national champion since Fischer. Nakamura finished the tournament without a loss and, in the seventh round, defeated grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov, then the nation's top-ranked player.

Following that victory, Nakamura played a challenge match dubbed the "Duelo de Jóvenes Prodigios" in Mexico against Ukrainian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin and defeated his fellow prodigy, 4.5–1.5.^[5]

In November and December 2005 Nakamura entered the FIDE World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, seeded 28th (of 128 players) but failed to advance beyond the first round. He lost each of his two games to Indian grandmaster Surya Ganguly.^[6]

In 2006, Nakamura helped the U.S. team win the bronze medal in the International Chess Olympiad at Turin, playing third board behind Gata Kamsky and 2006 U.S. Champion Alexander Onischuk. In the same year he won the 16th North American Open in Las Vegas.^[7]

In January 2007 Nakamura shared second place at the GibTelecom Masters in Gibraltar.^[8] He placed joint first in the tournament the following year, finishing with five straight wins to tie with Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi, whom he then proceeded to beat in the rapidplay play off.^[9]

In October 2007 Nakamura won the Magistral D'Escacs in Barcelona^[10] and the Corsican circuit rapid chess tournament.^[11]

Nakamura won the 2008 Finite Chess960 Open (Mainz).^[12] In November 2008, he won the Cap d'Agde Rapid Tournament in Cap d'Agde, defeating Anatoly Karpov in the semifinals and Vassily Ivanchuk in the finals.^[13] In February 2009 he came joint third at the 7th Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar, again finishing strongly with 4½/5 to end the event on 7½/10.^[14]

2009: Second U.S. Championship and other tournament successes[link]

Nakamura won the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship (St Louis, Missouri, May 2009), scoring 7/9 to take clear first ahead of 17-year-old GM-elect Robert Hess, who shared second with 6½.^[15]

In July 2009, Nakamura won the Donostia-San Sebastian Chess Festival, tying with former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov with 6.5/9 before defeating Ponomariov in a blitz playoff to win the title over a field including former undisputed world champion Anatoly Karpov, former FIDE world champions Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Ponomariov, 2009 World Junior champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Peter Svidler among others.^[16] In August 2009, Nakamura became the 960 World Chess Champion, beating GM Levon Aronian 3.5–0.5 in Mainz, Germany.

In November 2009, Nakamura participated in the BNbank blitz tournament in Oslo, Norway. He reached the final by winning all 12 of his games. In the championship, he faced the world No. 2 and reigning World Blitz Champion Magnus Carlsen. Nakamura won the match 3–1, further cementing his reputation as one of the best blitz players in the world, despite having not been invited to the 2009 World Blitz championship.^[17][18]

Nakamura skipped the Chess World Cup 2009 in favor of the London Chess Classic in December 2009. Although he drew with the black pieces against eventual winner Magnus Carlsen and with white against former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, Nakamura failed to win a game during the tournament and ended in seventh place out of eight.^[19]

2010: Gold medalist and top-ten player[link]

Nakamura began 2010 playing first board for the United States at the World Team Chess Championship held in Bursa, Turkey. Nakamura's impressive performance, including a convincing win over world No. 6 and recent Chess World Cup winner Boris Gelfand on the black side of a King's Indian Defense won him the individual gold medal for board one, and led the U.S. to a second place finish behind only Russia.^[20][21]

Nakamura participated in the 2010 Corus chess tournament in Wijk ann Zee. Winning over Loek van Wely, Nigel Short, early leader Alexei Shirov, and drawing against world champion Viswanathan Anand and world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, Nakamura was in second place after seven rounds.^[22] In the eighth round Nakamura faced former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, to whom he lost playing with the black pieces in a Dutch Defense.^[23] Nakamura had an up-and-down tournament the rest of the way, but finished with a long endgame victory over Sergei Tiviakov. Finishing with an overall +2 record, Nakamura tied for fourth with Viswanathan Anand, behind Carlsen, Shirov, and Kramnik.

In May, Nakamura participated in the 2010 United States Chess Championship in Saint Louis, Missouri attempting to defend his 2009 title. Seeded first, he scored 5/7 points to qualify for the round-robin stage against 1991 champion and current Candidates Player Gata Kamsky, 2006 champion Alexander Onischuk, and 2008 champion Yuri Shulman. In the round-robin stage, he drew Kamsky before losing to Shulman, with the white pieces in both games.^[24] The loss to Shulman eliminated him from defending his 2009 title.

Nakamura competed in the 39th Chess Olympiad, playing board one on the United States team featuring Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk, Yuri Shulman, and Robert Hess. Although he defeated Le Quang Liem and drew Kramnik with the black pieces during the tournament, the U.S. team failed to medal.

From November 5 through 14th, Nakamura competed in the 2010 Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow; the field consisted of world No. 3 Levon Aronian, world No. 4 Vladimir Kramnik, world No. 6 Alexander Grischuk, world No. 8 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, world No. 9 Sergey Karjakin, Pavel Eljanov, Boris Gelfand, Alexei Shirov, and Wang Hao. The average Elo of the field was 2757, making it the third strongest tournament in chess history at the time. Nakamura finished at +1, defeating Eljanov and drawing every other player to finish in a tie for fourth place and missing out on a tie for first place by blundering into a draw in a winning position in the final round against Grischuk.^[25] Nakamura's round two win over Eljanov placed him in the world top-ten in the live ratings for the first time in his career.^[26] Nakamura's performance at this tournament, his first involving an entirely super-elite field allowed him to "force (the chess elite) to respect him", according to noted Russian commentator grandmaster Sergey Shipov.^[27]

From November 16 through 18th, Nakamura made his debut at the 2010 World Blitz Championship in Moscow. Despite a disastrous start and losing four of his first five games to Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Sergey Karjakin, he recovered to score 5/7 in the second half of the day and finished with a score of 7.5/14, 2.5 points behind coleaders Carlsen and Levon Aronian, whom he defeated in their individual games. On the second day, Nakamura avenged his earlier losses against both Carlsen and Kramnik and scored 8/14, for a total of 15.5/28, three points behind Aronian and a point and a half behind Carlsen.^[28] Nakamura finished with 21.5/38 for fifth place behind Gelfand, Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov and champion Aronian.^[29]

In December 2010 Nakamura finished fourth in the London Chess Classic, among a field including Anand, Carlsen, Kramnik, Michael Adams, Nigel Short, David Howell, and Luke McShane. This included a win with Black against Kramnik, evening their career head-to-head record at 2.5/2.5. The tournament was won by Magnus Carlsen.^[30] Nakamura's performance ensured that he would officially join the world top ten as of January 1, 2011.

2011: First superGM tournament championship and continued rise[link]

In the January 2011 FIDE rating list, Nakamura was ranked number 10 in the world with a rating of 2751, his highest ranking to date.^[31]

Nakamura began training with former world champion Garry Kasparov. The first of several training sessions was held in New York at the beginning of January,^[32] but the training ended in December 2011.^[33]

From January 14 through January 30, Nakamura competed in the Tata Steel Grandmaster A tournament in Wijk aan Zee among a field of world No. 1 and defending champion Magnus Carlsen, world champion and world No. 2 Viswanathan Anand, world No. 3 and reigning World Blitz champion Levon Aronian, world No. 4 and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, world No. 7 Alexander Grischuk, former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, reigning Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, reigning Chinese champion Wang Hao, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexei Shirov, Anish Giri, Jan Smeets, and Erwin L'Ami. The average rating of the field was 2740, making this thirteen-round event a category 20 tournament. After twelve rounds, Nakamura was in clear first place with 8.5 points going into the final round, half a point ahead of Anand and a full point ahead of Carlsen and Aronian.^[34][35][36] In the final round, Nakamura drew against Hao with the black pieces in a King's Indian Defense. With the draw, Nakamura finished with 9/13 (+5), a tournament performance rating of 2879, and guaranteed at least a share of first place. With Anand's final round draw against Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura clinched sole possession of first place,^[37][38] making him the first American to win the Wijk aan Zee tournament since 1980. The win also guaranteed that Nakamura will join Carlsen (winner of the 2010 Pearl Spring chess tournament) as qualifiers for Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September 2011.^[39] Nakamura after the tournament stated that his goal was to reach a 2800 rating by the end of the year; the win raised his rating from 2751 to 2774 and from world No. 10 to world No. 7 on the unofficial live rating list.^[40] The rating of 2774 is within 11 points of Bobby Fischer's peak rating of 2785.^[41]

Former world champion Garry Kasparov, considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time, called Nakamura's victory the best by an American in more than 100 years:

In an e-mail, Kasparov said, "Fischer never won a tournament ahead of the world champion. He was second in Santa Monica", referring to the Second Piatigorsky Cup. "Of course, there were far fewer such events back then, and Fischer had several great tournament results like Stockholm 62", the interzonal qualifier for the world championship. "Reuben Fine only equaled Keres on points at AVRO in 38." Referring to the breakout performance of Frank J. Marshall, the United States Champion from 1909 to 1936, Mr. Kasparov continued, "Then you have Marshall at Cambridge Springs in 1904 ahead of Lasker, though Tarrasch wasn’t there. So unless you include Capablanca as an American player, I think you can go back to Pillsbury at Hastings 1895 for an American tournament victory on par with Nakamura’s."^[1]

Following his supertournament triumph, Nakamura was given the key to the city of Memphis, Tennessee on February 15, 2011.^[42] The victory also opened the door for Nakamura to receive invitations from other supergrandmaster tournaments for the first time, and increased his world ranking to a career-high number eight. In May he contested a six-game match in the United States against world No. 11 Ponomariov where he lost the first game but rallied to win the match 3.5–2.5, raising his rating to 2777 and ranking to world No. 6 on the unofficial live rating list, both career-highs to date. From June 11–21, he made his debut at the Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania in a field including Carlsen, world No. 5 Vassily Ivanchuk, world No. 6 Sergey Karjakin, world No. 13 Teimour Radjabov and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu; the tournament was a Category XXI event with an average ELO of 2760, making it the third strongest tournament in history; Nakamura finished 4.5/10; the tournament was won by Carlsen on tiebreak over Karjakin.^[43] Despite the disappointing performance at Bazna, he reached a new career-high world ranking of No. 6 in the July 2011 FIDE list with a 2770 rating.

From July 21–31, Nakamura made his debut at the Dortmund Invitational in Germany; the field comprised world No. 5 Kramnik, world No. 10 Ponomariov, world No. 27 Le Quang Liem, world No. 40 Giri, and Georg Meier.^[44] Nakamura had a second consecutive disappointing performance, beginning at −3 before winning his last two games, including a last-round win over tournament winner Kramnik on the black side of the King's Indian Defense, to finish at 4.5/10.^[45]

Nakamura competed in the Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September, after which he played in the Tal Memorial for the second consecutive year in a field comprising Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Karjakin, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Hao, and Nepomniachtchi. He finished the year by participating in the London Chess Classic for the third consecutive time.^[46] Starting in 2012, he participated in the Reggio Emilia Tournament, tying for second with Alexander Morezvich of Russia, and Fabiano Caruana of Italy. Anish Giri got first place in the tournament, a half-point ahead of the field. He will next participate in the Tata Steel tournament in the Netherlands.

Other[link]

Nakamura is very skilled at blitz chess, and has been called "easily the best blitz player in America"^[2] and "one of the best blitz players in the world".^[47]

Nakamura is well known in the chess community for playing on the Internet regularly. He plays primarily on two chess sites: Internet Chess Club ('Smallville'(Which he does not use)) ('Capilanobridge'(His current account)) and Playchess ('Star Wars'). He is the strongest bullet, blitz and standard player on the server and he has set many rating records under different categories.^[48]

Nakamura has served as a commentator and game annotator, most prominently on the ChessNinja website, operated by chess author Mig Greengard.

Nakamura has been described as having an uncommon enthusiasm for chess and as being much more approachable than other players of his ability. For instance, just after winning his first U.S. Championship in 2005, he played numerous 1-minute games with all comers in the lobby of the hotel where the competition had taken place.^[49]

Nakamura attended Dickinson College for a short while in Pennsylvania as a member of the class of 2010. He is also an avid hockey fan, and frequently attends games of the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks.^{[citation needed]}

Nakamura maintains a Twitter account under the username "GMHikaru".^[50] After what was to him a disappointing tournament at the 5th Edition of the Kings Tournament in Medias (although Nakamura placed third of sixth among a cadre of top Grandmasters),^[51] Nakamura tweeted that he was focusing on the 2011 World Series of Poker,^[52] in which he played, although busted out on the second day.^[53] Kasparov, who has been training Nakamura in chess, has publicly grumbled about his interest in poker.^[54]

Hikaru has set several "youngest-ever" records in U.S. chess history, including:^[55]

• Youngest to defeat an International Master in a USCF-rated game (10 years, 0 months); later surpassed by Praveen Balakrishnan at 9 years 29 days; Recently surpassed by Awonder Liang at 8 years 118 days;
• Youngest to defeat a Grandmaster in a USCF-rated game (10 years, 117 days; later surpassed by Fabiano Caruana at 10 years, 61 days);
• Youngest International Master (13 years, 2 months; later surpassed by Ray Robson at 13 years, 1 month).

Sample game[link]

Nakamura vs. Novikov, 2002

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Position after 34...Kd8. Typical of Nakamura's complicated and tactical style, Nakamura, only 15 years old at the time, finds a nice tactic to secure some material and the game.

This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

The following game is Nakamura–Novikov, played in the 29th New York Masters 2002. Nakamura's annotations are given along with the text.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5 8. Qd2 Nbd7 9. g4 Nb6 10. 0-0-0 Bb7 11. Nb3 Rc8 12. Na5 Ba8 13. a4!?

This rare line has only been played two times, both games were draws. (13.g5 Nfd7 14.a4 b4 15.Na2 Nxa4 16.Bxa6 Qxa5 17.Bxc8 Ndb6=/+ Perez–Novikov, Aosta Open Italy 2002.)

13... Nc4

13...d5 14.g5 Nfd7 15.exd5 Bxd5 16.axb5 Bb4 17.Nc6 Bxc6 18.bxc6 Rxc6 19.Bxb6 Rxb6 20.Qd4 0-0 21.Na4! Rb8 22.Qxd7 Qxg5+ 23.f4 Qxf4+ 24.Kb1+/− Andreev–Voitsekhovsky, 2000.

14. Nxc4 bxc4 15. Qd4 Qc7 16. g5 Nd7 17. f4

17.h4 e5 18.Qa7 Qxa7 19.Bxa7 h6 20.Bh3+/= De la Villa Garcia–Suba, Benasque Open 1995.

17... h6 18. g6!?

The idea behind sacrificing the pawn is to weaken the e6 and g6 pawns, and force Black to move his king to f7. (18.gxh6 Rxh6 19.f5 Rh7 [19...Rh4 20.fxe6 fxe6 21.Bf2 Rh7 22.Bg3!+/=] 20.fxe6.)

18... fxg6

Novikov accepts the challenge. Perhaps f5 was better because once he takes on g6 his pieces get tied down, and Black ends up with a very passive position. (18...f5!? 19.Bg2 Nf6~~.)

19. Rg1 Kf7

19...e5?! 20.Qd2 g5 (20...exf4 21.Bxf4 Qb6 22.Rxg6 Rb8 23.b3 cxb3 24.Re6+ Kf7 25.Bc4+/− ; 20...Qb7 21.Qd5! Qxd5 22.Nxd5+/=) 21.fxg5 hxg5 22.Nd5+/=.

20. f5 gxf5

20...exf5 21.exf5 gxf5 22.Bh3→.

21. exf5 e5 22.Qh4?!

Missing a chance to get a winning position. (22.Qg4! Nf6 23.Qg6+ Ke7 24.Bg2+/−.)

22... Nf6 23. Be2 Ke8 24. Rg6 Qf7 25. Qg3 Rb8 26. a5! Bc6 27. Bb6 h5

This is the only move which makes any sense here, but it allows White to win the exchange. Maybe Novikov felt like giving up the exchange to get some counterplay because if he does not play h5 White has all the play.

28. Qh4 d5 29. Qg3 Qe7 30. Bd4! Rxb2 31. Kxb2 exd4 32. Rxd4 Qa3+ 33. Kb1 Bd6?

33...Qb4+ 34.Kc1 Bd6~~ After the game, when I analysed with Novikov, he suggested this line. I did not find anything which was winning for White, and I think that Black is at least even in this position if not better.

34. Qe3+ Kd8 (see diagram) 35. Nxd5!!

Clearly Novikov did not see this brilliant tactical shot as he used up most of his time trying to come up with a good move. In the end he had to settle for a losing endgame down an exchange.

35... Qxe3

35...Bxd5 36.Qxa3 Bxa3 37.Bxc4 Bc5 38.Rd3+−; 35...Qxa5 36.Nxf6 Qe1+ 37.Qc1+−; 35...Nxd5 36.Qxa3 Bxa3 37.Rxc6+−.

36. Nxe3 Kc7 37. Rxg7+ Nd7 38. Nxc4 Rb8+ 39. Nb6 Re8 40. Bf3 Re1+ 41. Ka2 Ra1+!

Desperation.

42. Kxa1 Be5 43. c3 Bxg7 44. Bxc6 Bxd4 45. cxd4 1–0

45.cxd4 Kxc6 46.d5+ Kd6 47.Nxd7 Kxd7 48.f6+−.

Head-to-head record versus top players[link]

(Rapid, blitz and blindfold games not included; listed as +wins −losses =draws as of January 9, 2012.)^[56]
Players who have been World Champion in boldface

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hikaru Nakamura

• Hikaru Nakamura's Official Website
• Hikaru Nakamura's Live Chess Rating Statistics
• Hikaru Nakamura player profile at ChessGames.com
• Hikaru Nakamura player profile at the Internet Chess Club
• Play through Nakamura's 2005 U.S. Championship Games

Sourav Ganguly

Personal information
Full name	Sourav Chandidas Ganguly
Born	(1972-07-08) 8 July 1972 (age 39) Behala, Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Nickname	The Prince of Calcutta, The Maharaja, Dada, The Warrior Prince
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Right arm medium
Role	Batsman
Relations	Snehasish Ganguly (brother), Dona Ganguly (Wife)
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 207)	20 June 1996 v England
Last Test	6 November 2008 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 84)	11 January 1992 v West Indies
Last ODI	15 November 2007 v Pakistan
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1990–2010	Bengal
2000	Lancashire
2005	Glamorgan
2006	Northamptonshire
2008–10	Kolkata Knight Riders
2011-present	Pune Warriors India
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	113	311	254	437
Runs scored	7,212	11,363	15,687	15,622
Batting average	42.17	41.02	44.18	41.32
100s/50s	16/35	22/72	33/89	31/97
Top score	239	183	239	183
Balls bowled	3,117	4,561	11,108	8,199
Wickets	32	100	167	171
Bowling average	52.53	38.49	36.52	38.86
5 wickets in innings	0	2	4	2
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	3/28	5/16	6/46	5/16
Catches/stumpings	71/–	100/–	168/–	131/– column2 = 20-20
Source: CricketInfo, 28 February 2009

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly ( pronunciation (help·info); born 8 July 1972) is a former Indian cricketer, and captain of the Indian national team. Born into an affluent family, Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother Snehasish. He is regarded as one of India's most successful captains in modern times.^[1] He started his career by playing in state and school teams. Currently, he is the 5th highest run scorer in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and was the 3rd person in history to cross the 10,000 run landmark, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq. Wisden ranked him the sixth greatest one day international batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Bevan.^[2]

After a series of playing in different Indian domestic tournaments such as the Ranji and Duleep trophies, Ganguly got his big-break while playing for India on their tour of England. He scored 131 runs and cemented his place in the Indian team. Ganguly's place in the team was assured after successful performances in series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia, winning the Man of the Match awards. In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he was involved in a partnership of 318 runs with Rahul Dravid, which remains the highest overall partnership score in the World Cup tournament history.

Due to the match-fixing scandals in 2000 by other players of the team, and for his poor health, Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar resigned his position, and Ganguly was made the captain of the Indian cricket team. He was soon the subject of media criticism after an unsuccessful stint for county side Durham and for taking off his shirt in the final of the 2002 Natwest Trophy. He led India into the 2003 World Cup final, where they were defeated by Australia. Due to a decrease in individual performance, he was dropped from the team in the following year. Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India's highest civilian awards. He returned to the National team in 2006, and made successful batting displays. Around this time, he became involved in a dispute with Indian team coach Greg Chappell over several misunderstandings. Ganguly was again dropped from the team, however he was selected to play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Ganguly joined the Kolkata Knight Riders team as captain for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament in 2008. The same year, after a home Test series against Australia, he announced his retirement from international cricket. He continued to play for the Bengal team and was appointed the chairman of the Cricket Association of Bengal's Cricket Development Committee. The left-handed Ganguly was a prolific One Day International (ODI) batsman, with over 11,000 ODI runs to his credit. He is one of the most successful Indian Test captains to date, winning 21 out of 49 test matches. An aggressive captain, Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him, and transforming the Indian team into an aggressive fighting unit.

Biography[link]

1972–89: Early life and introduction to cricket[link]

Sourav Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Calcutta, and is the youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly.^[3][4] Chandidas ran a flourishing print business and was one of the richest men in the city.^[5] Ganguly had a luxurious childhood and was nicknamed the 'Maharaja', meaning the 'Great King'. Since the favourite sport for the people of Calcutta was the game of football, Ganguly was initially attracted to the game. However, academics came in-between his love for sports and Nirupa was not very supportive of Ganguly taking up cricket or any other sport as a career.^[6][7] By then, his elder brother Snehasish was already an established cricketer for the Bengal cricket team. He supported Ganguly's dream to be a cricketer and asked their father to get Ganguly enrolled in a cricket coaching camp during his summer holidays. Ganguly was studying in tenth grade at that time.^[8]

Despite being right-handed, Ganguly learnt to bat left-handed so he could use his brother's sporting equipment.^[6] After he showed some promise as a batsman, he was enrolled in a cricket academy. An indoor multi-gym and concrete wicket was built at their home, so he and Snehasish could practice the game. They used to watch a number of old cricket match videos, especially the games played by David Gower, whom Ganguly admired.^[5] After he scored a century against the Orissa Under–15 side, he was made captain of St Xavier's School's cricket team, where several of his teammates complained against what they perceived to be his arrogance.^[6][9] While touring with a junior team, Ganguly refused his turn as the twelfth man, as he reportedly felt that the duties involved, which included organising equipment and drinks for the players, and delivering messages, were beneath his social status.^[10] Ganguly purportedly refused to do such tasks as he considered it beneath his social status to assist his teammates in such a way.^[11] However, his playmanship gave him a chance to make his first-class cricket debut for Bengal in 1989, the same year that his brother was dropped from the team.^[6][12]

1990–96: Career beginning and debut success[link]

The Lord's Pavillion

Following a prolific Ranji season in 1990–91,^[13] Ganguly scored three runs in his One Day International (ODI) debut for India against the West Indies in 1992.^[3][14] He was dropped immediately since he was perceived to be "arrogant" and his attitude towards the game was openly questioned. It was rumored that Ganguly refused to carry drinks for his teammates, commenting that it was not his job to do so, later denied by him. Consequently, he was removed from the team.^[6][11] He toiled away in domestic cricket, scoring heavily in the 1993–94 and 1994–95 Ranji seasons.^[15][16] Following an innings of 171 in the 1995–96 Duleep Trophy, he was recalled to the National team for a tour of England in 1996, in the middle of intense media scrutiny.^[17] He played in a single ODI,^[18] but was omitted from the team for the first Test. However, after teammate Navjot Singh Sidhu left the touring, citing ill-treatment by then captain Mohammad Azharuddin,^[19][20] Ganguly made his Test debut against England in the Second Test of a three-match series at Lord's Cricket Ground alongside Rahul Dravid.^[21] England had won the First Test of the three-match series; however, Ganguly scored a century, becoming only the third cricketer to achieve such a feat on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire. Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior have since accomplished this feat, but Ganguly's 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on his debut at the ground.^[20] India was not required to bat in the second innings due to the match ending in a draw.^[22] In the next Test match at Trent Bridge he made 136, thus becoming only the third batsman to make a century in each of his first two innings (after Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran). He shared a 255 run stand with Sachin Tendulkar, which became at that time the highest partnership for India against any country for any wicket outside India. The Test again ended in a draw, handing England a 1–0 series victory; Ganguly scored 48 in the second innings.^[23][24]

1997–99: Marriage, Opening in ODIs and World Cup '99[link]

Ganguly in Sri Lanka in 2008.

Weeks after his successful tour of England, Ganguly eloped with childhood sweetheart Dona Roy. The bride and groom's family were sworn enemies at that point and this news caused an uproar between them. However, both families reconciled and a formal wedding was held in February 1997.^[6][25] Same year, Ganguly scored his maiden ODI century by hitting 113, opposed to Sri Lanka's team total of 238. Later that year, he won four consecutive man of the match awards, in the Sahara Cup with Pakistan; the second of these was won after he took five wickets for 16 runs off 10 overs, his best bowling in an ODI. After a barren run in Test cricket his form returned at the end of the year with three centuries in four Tests all against Sri Lanka two of these involved stands with Sachin Tendulkar of over 250.^[3]

During the final of the Independence Cup at Dhaka in January 1998, India successfully chased down 315 off 48 overs, and Ganguly won the Man of the Match award.^[26] In March 1998 he was part of the Indian team that defeated Australia; in Kolkata, he took three wickets having opened the bowling with his medium pace.^[27]

Ganguly was part of the Indian team that competed in the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England. During the match against Sri Lanka at Taunton, India chose to bat. After Sadagoppan Ramesh was bowled, Ganguly scored 183 from 158 balls, and hit 17 fours and seven sixes. It became the second highest score in World Cup history and the highest by an Indian in the tournament. His partnership of 318 with Rahul Dravid is the highest overall score in a World Cup and is the second highest in all ODI cricket.^[28][29] In 1999–00, India lost Test series to both Australia and South Africa that involved a combined total of five Tests.^[30][31] Ganguly struggled scoring 224 runs at 22.40; however his ODI form was impressive, with five centuries over the season taking him to the top of the PwC One Day Ratings for batsmen.^[32] Around the same time, allegations came that Ganguly was romantically involved with South Indian actress Nagma, something he denied.^[33]

2000–05: Ascension to captaincy and accolades[link]

The shirt that Ganguly took off at the finals of the Natwest Trophy, on display at a store in London.

In 2000, after the match fixing scandal by some of the players of the team,^[34] Ganguly was named the Captain of the Indian cricket team. The decision was spurred due to Tendulkar stepping down from the position for his health, and Ganguly being the vice-captain at that time.^[6] He began well as a captain, leading India to a series win over South Africa in the five-match one day series and led the Indian team to the finals of the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy.^[6] He scored two centuries, including one in the final; however, New Zealand still won by four wickets.^[35] The same year, Ganguly tried his hand at county cricket career in England but was not successful.^[36] In "The Wisden Cricketer", reviewers Steve Pittard and John Stern called him as "The imperious Indian—dubbed 'Lord Snooty'". They commented:

"At the crease it was sometimes uncertain whether his partner was a batsman or a batman being dispatched to take his discarded sweater to the pavilion or carry his kit bag. But mutiny was afoot among the lower orders. In one match Ganguly, after reaching his fifty, raised his bat to the home balcony, only to find it deserted. He did not inspire at Glamorgan or Northamptonshire either. At the latter in 2006 he averaged 4.80 from his four first-class appearances."^[37]

His Lancashire teammate Andrew Flintoff thought him to be aloof and compared his attitude to that of Prince Charles.^[9] In Australia's three Test and five match ODI tour of India in early 2001, Ganguly caused controversy by arriving late for the toss on four occasions, something that agitated opposing captain Steve Waugh.^[38] In the Fourth ODI, he caused further controversy by failing to wear his playing attire to the toss, something considered unusual in cricket circles.^[39] However, India won the Test series 2–1, ending Australia's run of 16 consecutive Test match victories in the Second Test.^[40] The match saw India looking set for defeat after conceding a first innings lead of 274. Waugh chose to enforce the follow-on and V. V. S. Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180) batted for the entire fourth day's play to set Australia a target of 384 on a dusty, spinning wicket. The Australians were unable to survive and became only the third team to lose a Test after enforcing the follow-on.^[41][42][43] In November 2001, Ganguly's wife Dona gave birth to their daughter Sana Ganguly.^[6] At the Border-Gavaskar Trophy of 2001, During the final match of the 2002 Natwest Trophy held in Lords after a stunning performance by team mates Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, Ganguly took off his shirt in public and brandished it in the air to celebrate India's winning of the match.^[44] He was later strongly condemned for tarnishing the "gentleman's game" image of cricket and disrespecting Lords protocol. Ganguly said that he was only mimicking an act performed by the British all-rounder Andrew Flintoff during a tour of India.^[45] In 2003, India reached the World Cup Final for the first time since 1983, where they lost to the Australians.^[46] Ganguly had a successful tournament personally, scoring 465 runs at an average of 58.12, including three centuries.^[47]

By 2004, he had achieved significant success as captain and was deemed as India's most successful cricket captain by sections of the media. However, his individual performance deteriorated during his captaincy reign, especially after the World Cup, the tour of Australia in 2003 and the Pakistan series in 2004.^[48][49] In 2004, Australia won a Test series in India for the first time since 1969. It was speculated that Ganguly was in disagreement with the head of cricket in Nagpur over the type of pitch to be used for the Third Test. The groundsmen went against Ganguly, leaving a large amount of grass on the pitch. Some experts indicated that the reason for this was for "spite or revenge" against the Indian captain. When Australia's stand-in-captain, Adam Gilchrist, went to the toss, he noticed Rahul Dravid was waiting instead of Ganguly, leaving him to ask Dravid where Ganguly was. Dravid could not give a definitive answer, saying: "Oh, who knows?"^[38][50]

Following indifferent form in 2004 and poor form in 2005, he was dropped from the team in October 2005.^[51] Having been nominated and rejected in 2000, when the game suffered a tarnished reputation due to match fixing scadals,^[34] the captaincy was passed to Dravid, his former deputy. Ganguly decided against retiring and attempted to make a comeback to the team.^[11] Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India's highest awards. He was presented with the award on June 30, 2004, by then President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.^[52][53]

2006–07: Comeback and rift with Greg Chappell[link]

Ganguly signing autographs outside his residence.

In September 2005, Greg Chappell became the coach for the India tour of Zimbabwe. Ganguly's dispute with him resulted in many headlines. Chappell had emailed the Board of Control for Cricket in India, stating that Ganguly was "physically and mentally" unfit to lead India and that his "divide and rule" behaviour was damaging the team.^[11] This email was leaked to the media and resulted in huge backlash from Ganguly's fans. Ganguly had enlisted the support from the Indian media and eventually the board had to intervene and order a truce between the pair.^[11] BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra issued a statement that,

"In view of the decision that cricket is to go forward, both the coach and the captain have been asked to work out a mutual and professional working relationship. For this, performance will be the criteria, applicable to captain, coach and players. [...] Of course the captain controls the game, the coach does his own job. Mutual trust is important. Henceforth no player/captain/coach will write or have any interaction with the media. Going to the media will lead to disciplinary action."^[54]

Ganguly, Chappell and the Indian team manager for the Zimbabwe tour, Amitabh Choudhary, were asked to appear before the BCCI committee, where it was reported that assurance of working together was given by them.^[54] Consequently, due to his poor form and differences with the coach, Ganguly was dropped as the captain of the team, with Dravid taking his place.^[55] Chandresh Narayan, chief correspondent for The Times of India, commented that "The row with Greg Chappell just added to the mystery, but he was going through a really bad patch then, his only score [of note] was a hundred against Zimbabwe and that didn't count for much."^[11] Ten months later, during India's tour to South Africa, Ganguly was recalled after his middle order replacements Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif suffered poor form.^[56]

Following India's poor batting display in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy^[57] and the ODI series in South Africa, in which they were whitewashed 4-0,^[58] Ganguly made his comeback to the Test team.^[59] Wasim Jaffer, Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble had earlier been selected for the one-day squad, despite their recent poor performances.^[60] Many saw this as an indictment of coach Greg Chappell's youth-first policy.^[61] Coming in at 37/4, Ganguly scored 83 in a tour match against the rest of South Africa, modifying his original batting style and taking a middle-stump guard,^[62] resulting in India winning the match.^[63] During his first Test innings since his comeback, against South Africa in Johannesburg his score of 51 helped India to victory, marking the first Test match win for the team in South Africa.^[64][65] Though India lost the series, Ganguly accumulated the most runs on the scoring chart.^[66] After his successful Test comeback he was recalled for the ODI team, as India played host to West Indies^[67] and Sri Lanka^[68] in back to back ODI tournaments. In his first ODI innings in almost two years,^[69] he scored a matchwinning 98.^[70] He performed well in both series, averaging almost 70^[69] and won the Man of the Series Award against Sri Lanka.^[71]

Ganguly was alloted a place in the official team for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.^[72] He was the leading scorer for India in their first round defeat against Bangladesh.^[73] After India were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage, there were reports of a rift between certain members of the Indian team and Chappell. Ganguly was alleged to have ignored instructions from the team management to score quickly.^[74] After Tendulkar issued a statement saying that what hurt the team most was that "the coach has questioned our attitude", Chappell decided not to renew his contract with the Indian team and left his post as coach, citing "family and personal reasons".^[75] On 12 December 2007, Ganguly scored his maiden double century of his career while playing against Pakistan. He scored 239 runs in the first innings of the third and final Test match of the series. He was involved in a 300  run partnership for the fifth wicket with Yuvraj Singh.^[76] Ganguly remained prolific in both Test and ODI cricket in the year 2007. He scored 1106 Test runs at an average of 61.44 (with three centuries and four fifties) in 2007 to become the second highest run-scorer in Test matches of that year after Jacques Kallis.^[77] He was also the fifth highest run-scorer in 2007 in ODIs, where he scored 1240 runs at an average of 44.28.^[78]

2008–present: International retirement and the Indian Premier League[link]

Ganguly with the symbol of the Kolkata Knight Riders, flanked by Shahrukh Khan on the right and Gauri Khan on the left.

In February 2008, Ganguly joined as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team, owned by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan, as part of the Indian Premier League (IPL).^[79] On 18 April 2008, Ganguly led the KKR, in the IPL Twenty20 cricket match. They had a 140 run victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers captained by Rahul Dravid and owned by Vijay Mallya. Ganguly opened the innings with Brendan McCullum and scored 10 runs while McCullum remained unbeaten, scoring 158 runs in 73 balls.^[80] On 1 May, in a game between the Knight Riders and the Rajasthan Royals, Ganguly made his second T20 half century, scoring 51 runs off of 39 balls at a strike rate of 130.76. In his innings, Ganguly hit four 4s and two sixes, topping the scorers list for the Knight Riders.^[81]

On 7 July 2008, media reported that Ganguly was being projected as a candidate for the post of President of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) against his former mentor Jagmohan Dalmiya. Reports also suggested that he could run for the post of BCCI President in 2014 as East Zone's representative. Ganguly himself did not deny the reports and did not rule out any such move.^[82][83] The same year in October, Ganguly announced that the Test series against Australia starting in October 2008 would be his last and stated "[t]o be honest, I didn't expect to be picked for this series. Before coming here, [at the conference] I spoke to my team-mates and hopefully I will go out with a winning knock."^[84] Ganguly played in every game of the four-Test series and amassed 324 runs at an average of 54.00.^[85][86] While playing the second Test match of the series in Mohali, Ganguly scored his final test century. In the Fourth and final Test, with India needing one wicket to secure a victory, the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, invited Ganguly to lead the side in the field for the final time. India regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, winning the series 2–0.^[87][88]

In May 2009, Ganguly was removed from the captaincy of the KKR for the 2009 season of the IPL, and was replaced by McCullum. The decision was questioned by media and other players of the team, when KKR finished at the bottom of the ranking table with three wins and ten losses.^[89] After that, television channel Zee Bangla appointed him as the host of the reality quiz show titled Dadagiri Unlimited. It presented participants from the 19 districts of West Bengal, who had to answer questions posed by Ganguly.^[90] By August, he was appointed the chairman of CAB's Cricket Development Committee. The job of the committee is to receive a report from the selectors at the end of every cricket season, assess the accountability of the selectors and make necessary recommendations.^[91] He played for the Ranji cup in the Bengal team in October 2009.^[92] Ganguly scored 110 in the match against Delhi and was involved in a partnership of 222 runs with Wriddhiman Saha.^[93]

In the third season of the IPL, Ganguly was once again given the captaincy of KKR, after the team ended at the bottom in the second season. The coach John Buchanan was replaced by Dav Whatmore.^[94] In 40 matches and 38 innings for KKR Ganguly scored 1,031 runs and took eight wickets.^[95][96] In the fourth season of the IPL he was signed by the Pune Warriors India, after being unsold in initial bidding process and he made 50 runs of four matches and three innings.^[97][98] In the 2012 season he has been appointed as the Captain cum mentor for Pune Warriors India.

Playing style and influences[link]

Ganguly in action on the field.

Ganguly commented that David Gower was the first cricketer to attract him to the game. He loved Gower's style and used to watch old videos of him playing.^[99] Other cricketers who had an influence on him are: David Boon, Mohinder Amarnath, Kapil Dev and Allan Border.^[100] Ganguly is a left-handed batsman whose runs came primarily from the off-side. Debashish Dutta, author of Sourav Ganguly, the maharaja of cricket, commented that throughout his career, "Ganguly played off-side shots such as the square cut, square drive and cover drive with complete command."^[101] Rahul Dravid has called Ganguly "...next to God on the off-side." He used to hit powerful shots to the off-side on front and back foot with equal ease. However, early in his career he was not comfortable with the hook and pull, often giving his wicket away with mistiming such shots. He was also criticized for having difficulty in handling short bouncers, notoriously exploited by the Australians and South Africans.^[102] However, after his comeback in 2007, he worked upon these weaknesses to a large extent.^[103]

Amrita Daityari, author of Sourav Ganguly: the fire within, noted that in ODIs, where Ganguly usually opened the innings, he used to try to take the advantage of fielding restrictions by advancing down the pitch and hitting pace bowlers over extra cover and mid-off. She commented: "Ganguly was notorious for attacking left-arm spin bowlers. Due to excellent eye–hand coordination, he was noted for picking the length of the ball early, coming down the pitch and hitting the ball aerially over mid-on or midwicket, often for a six. However, he did have a weakness in running between the wickets and judging quick singles."^[104] There were many instances where Ganguly's batting partner was run out due to Ganguly's calling for a run, and then sending him back while halfway down the pitch. A situation like this happened in an ODI against Australia where he took a single when on 99, but he coasted and did not ground his bat. Although the bat was past the crease, it was in the air and he was consequently run out. Ganguly said, "I love to watch myself hit a cover drive, to watch myself hit a hundred."^[105] Ganguly's relationship with former Indian coach John Wright has been well documented in contemporary media, with them denoting the relationship as a "symbiotic process". They credited Wright and Ganguly with bringing out international class performers, through academic, coaching and scientific fitness regimens.^[106] According to Dubey, Ganguly and Wright, along with other members of the team like Tendulkar and Dravid, were the first to understand the importance of a foreign coach for the Indian cricket team and was convinced that the domestic coach has outlived its utility. Ganguly's aggressive style and Wright's importance on fitness ushered in the development of a better cricket team for India.^[106]

Ganguly is a right-arm medium pace bowler. He can swing and seam the ball both ways and often chips in with useful wickets to break partnerships.^[3] Vinod Tiwari, author of the biography Sourav Ganguly praised him saying "[d]espite not being very athletic as a fielder, Ganguly has taken 100 catches in one-day Internationals. That's something to be proud of!" However he criticized Ganguly's ground fielding, especially his slowness in intercepting the ball to prevent runs and his tendency to get injured during catching the ball.^[107]

Legacy[link]

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Ganguly's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

Author Pradeep Mandhani commented that in his tenure between 2000 and 2005, Ganguly became India's most successful Test captain. He led his team to victory on 21 occasions — seven times more than Mohammad Azharuddin with the second most wins—and led them for a record 49 matches—twice more than both Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar.^[108][109] Compared to his batting average of 45.47 when not captain,^[110] Ganguly's Test batting average as captain was a lower 37.66.^[111]

Statistics about Ganguly show that he was the seventh Indian cricketer to have played 100 Test matches,^[112] the 4th highest overall run scorer for India in Tests,^[113] and the fourth Indian to have played in more than 300 ODIs.^[114] In terms of overall runs scored in ODIs, Ganguly is the second among Indians after Sachin Tendulkar (who has the most ODI runs) and the fifth overall.^[115] He has scored 16 centuries in Test matches and 22 in ODIs. He is also one of only eight batsmen to score more than 10,000 runs in ODIs.^[116] Along with Tendulkar, Ganguly has formed the most successful opening pair in One Day Cricket, having amassed the highest number of century partnerships (26) for the first wicket. Together, they have scored more than 7000 runs at an average of 48.98, and hold the world record for creating most number of 50-run partnership in the first wicket (44 fifties).^[117] Ganguly became the fourth player to cross 11,000 ODI runs, and was the fastest player to do so in ODI cricket, after Tendulkar.^[118] As of 2006, he is the only Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan (although two of the three Tests of that series was led by Rahul Dravid). He is also one of the three players in the world to achieve amazing treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket history, the others being Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.^[119]

Ganguly with the young cricketers of the Kolkata Knight Riders team during IPL 2009.

Author Mihir Bose, in his book, The magic of Indian cricket: cricket and society in India. commented that "The cricket world had gotten too used to the stereotype of the meek Indian cricketer. All that has changed under Ganguly, perhaps for the better."^[120] He credits Ganguly for not being shy of taking on responsibility. "He showed that he can be a leader of a team, which has greats like Sachin and Dravid in the side, without any problems. Under Ganguly's leadership, India started winning matches and tournaments, previously lacking from the team considerably."^[120] Within a few years of his captaincy, Ganguly rewrote the rules of being a captain of a cricket team. Unlike some of his predecessors, Ganguly was considered impartial, non-parochial, and forever pushed his players to perform better. Off the field, his interactions with the media, his fans, and detractors were uncompromisingly honest and earned him the respect of cricket followers everywhere. However, along with this respect came the criticisms. Ganguly was condemned as a hot-tempered man who refused to listen to other's opinions and abided by his own rules and regulations.^[120] Matthew Engel, ICC sport critic, noted that this "turning deaf" to other's opinions would one day harm Ganguly and that it was sheer luck that he existed on the sporting world.^[121]

Ganguly believed that his legacy as a captain was that he was able to build a proper Indian team. He added,

"[We] were able to change the face of Indian cricket. That's what I'm proud of, because I think we made a huge difference. People used to think that we would simply roll over when playing out of India, but we changed the image. [...] [The team wouldn't take any crap from any opposition] Absolutely, and that came from self-belief that, that we had the ability to do well outside India."^[122]

Bose commented that Ganguly's greatest legacy lay in his influence on the younger and budding generation of cricketers. Ganguly felt that every young player should play two years of domestic cricket before being selected for international assignments. He also said that every newcomer should be given at least five games to prove himself.^[123][124] Later he explained that being at the receiving end of an unfair decision against him, that threatened to ruin his international cricket career, it enabled him to understand the insecurities of other newcomers in the team better than his predecessors. Ganguly had always backed the influence and contribution of younger players of the team.^[125]

Despite his contributions, his captaincy and coaching methods came under immense scrutiny from the press as well as other scholars. Engel commented that "He seems like aloof to the problems that his mal-decisions are creating. I don't particularly believe that Ganguly has an 'effing knowledge how to lead his team and tries to counter-pose it with instigating limitless, confrontational behaviours within the younger members of it. [One day] the time will come when such shock tactics will cease to work."^[126] An article on Cricinfo Magazine pointed out his reckless behaviour. The reporter Rahul Bhattacharya said, "Generally Ganguly fostered angry or reckless young men. To him 'good behaviour', a broad term espoused by the present team management, belonged in school and probably not even there. He himself had been summoned to the match referee no less than 12 times in the last decade. His approach was bound to precipitate what could possibly be termed a cultural conflict in the world of modern sport. For Ganguly, like for Arjuna Ranatunga, competitiveness involved brinksmanship rather than training. As far as they were concerned Australia were not to be aspired to. They were simply to be toppled. England were not to be appeased. Victory lay precisely in their disapproval. In other words, Ganguly and Ranatunga wanted to do things their way."^[127]

Captaincy Record[link]

See also[link]

• List of international cricket centuries by Sourav Ganguly

Notes[link]