Minimum investment, deep dedication: Chess now offers a workable career path for children

PTI, Aug 27, 2023, 6:39 PM IST

Representative image (source: iStock)

The stunning progress of teen prodigies R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh in international chess has encouraged several parents to consider the sport as a serious ‘career option’ for their children.

Praggnanandhaa caught the imagination of the country when he reached the final of the FIDE World Cup after a sterling run through the tournament. So, what does it takes to be a wizard on the board, and turn it into a viable career? Experts have their say.

Chess, in fact, is one of the least expensive sports to begin with, even with an initial investment as low as Rs 50. But the journey forward to chess mastery is not that simple, though. It requires endless hours of practice, and years of dedication.

Pravin Thipsay, the first Indian to get a GM norm and currently the chairman of Indian trainers’ commission, explained the path. ”I had about zero investment. We learned the game ourselves by studying and discussing the moves and it took me about 600 matches to get to 2450-plus, (ELO) points,” Thipsay, India’s third GM behind Viswanathan Anand and Dibyendu Barua, told PTI.

”Anand took about 200 games. If you are serious, 1000 games and analysis should be enough to take you there. ”But there must be proper analysis of each game and make sure that you don’t repeat the same mistake. But if you lose (the match) the same way next time then even 10000 games won’t be enough,” Thipsay said.

Thipsay said parents should not adopt shortcuts to success with a GM title alone in mind. ”We are not in pursuit of excellence. A GM title will not make you a champion player. On an average we see one champion from one lakh aspirants.

”What happens after you (a player) become a GM, you shy away from competitions and your career goes for a toss. To make chess lucrative, you have to be inside the world top-10, and constantly evolve yourself which is not easy,” said Thipsay.

He cited the example of Tamil Nadu GM G Akash, also a two-time consecutive national champion. ”He is never in the Indian team. GM is a very low target we have set.

”We have 83 GM’s in the country now and more than 2000 across the world. Before 1998 there were less than 300 GMs, so what happened to them,” he noted.

In the words of legendary Bobby Fischer, chess is all about ”strong memory, vivid imagination, and adept mathematical abilities.” Intelligence, Fischer believed, was not a determining factor in mastering the game.

But Mikhail Botvinnik, the renowned coach of legendary Garry Kasparov, had stressed on four fundamental pillars for becoming a champion — natural talent (25%), health, endurance, and stamina (25%), the character of the individual (25%), and preparation (25%). But today’s parents give their all to preparation.

”Even if you have Garry Kasparov on board, you cannot guarantee of becoming a world champion,” said Thipsay. He further cited the example of the early 2000s when Kolkata produced a slew of GMs in Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda, Neelotpal Das and WGM Nisha Mohota.

”They were the result of group discussions. They would sit together, discuss the games and not seek the help of computers.

”It does not happen any more these days because parents don’t have time to bring the kids together at one place.”

”Parents should understand that there are no shortcuts, you can have zero investment and still get the results in chess, by sheer hard work,” Thipsay added.

India’s second GM Barua, who is also the head of Sara Bangla Daba Sangstha and runs an academy in the city, said every parent should put their kids in chess as it helps in ”overall mental development.”

”There is no guarantee how far one will go, but the game is sure to make you sharper, you become good at strategising and judgements,” said Barua. Depending on the location and reputation, the coaching academies charge between Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 per month for one or two classes per week.

But the expenses gradually increase when a player seeks the help of a ”personal trainer.” A personal trainer can charge per session or hourly basis depending on the requirement of the player and the fees would range from Rs 400-500 per session to Rs 10,000 per hour.

”It depends on who’s coaching — a FIDE approved trainer or a GM. Some Europeans charge about 100 euro per hour. The sky’s the limit here,” said Atanu Lahiri, who is the head of the Bengal Chess Association and also a former India coach.

”But on an average, if everything falls in place one would take a minimum six to eight years to become a GM,” he said.

As a player advances in his/her career, the expenses too mount because of the travelling involved to play in several tournaments. But careful planning can curb the expenditure. ”Kolkata has about 50-60 tournaments per year. But if one goes out of state or country then the expenses will shoot up drastically,” Barua said.

He said parents have to make that difficult choice between studies and chess at a certain stage. ”More often than not, it’s during the crucial 14-15 years when you have to make a difficult choice and many parents shy away. ”They come back after the Board exams, by then the flow of the child is lost,” Barua said.

Parents of Ishan Sil, a bright student of Calcutta Boys School who trains at the Barua Chess Academy, grapple with a similar challenge.

”He truly enjoys chess and spends about one-to-two hours daily in practice. I would accompany him for several tournaments in and around Kolkata and he is mastering the nuances of the game.

”But I may have to make a difficult choice now as he approaches his Board exam in three years,” said Ishan’s mother Sunita Dhar. It is a common theme across the country. But now parents are willing to find an intersectional path between their child’s passion for chess and the demands of academics.