Australian chess prodigy Reyaansh Chakrabarty talks grandmaster ambitions
For 11-year-old chess prodigy Reyaansh Chakrabarty, the hit Netflix show The Queen's Gambit sparked a love for the game that now takes him around the world on a quest to become Australia's first world champion.
'During the pandemic, I watched it a little bit, it's one of the things that got me interested in chess,' he told NewsWire this week in an exclusive interview.
'I didn't really know what chess was but I found it quite amusing, the pieces.
'She (Beth Harmon) is like looking up on the ceiling and watching the pieces move.'
Like the fictional hero of the smash-hit show, Reyaansh imagines chess games in his head.
'I see pieces kind of everywhere,' he said.
Reyaansh, from western Sydney, is a FIDE master with a classical rating of 2346 and his sharp rise has the Australian chess world excited.
'He is showing a lot of promise at a young age,' Australian Chess Federation publicity director Paul Power told NewsWire.
The next level is international master, which generally means a rating of 2400 and three 'norms' or performance benchmarks a player needs to hit to gain the title.
And then there is the rarefied world of grandmaster, a huge achievement that takes years of dedicated practice, study and ambition.
Australia has only produced 10 grandmasters from a global field of about 2000.
'It's hard to predict that he is necessarily going to become a grandmaster, but he is certainly going about it the right way,' Mr Power said.
'Should he get to the GM title, Australia would be very pleased. It would be a feather in the cap, not just for Reyaansh and his family but for Australia.'
Reyaansh's ambitions go even further and he dreams about becoming world champion.
'It's a huge call but right now I'm focused on improving step-by-step,' he said.
It's an ambition that might seem extraordinary for an 11-year-old, but chess is a young person's game.
The world champion is 18-year-old Indian wonder Gukesh Dommaraju, who ascended the throne in 2024 after beating Chinese GM Ding Liren in Singapore.
Before Gukesh, the title was held by Norwegian legend Magnus Carlsen, widely credited as one of the greatest players in history alongside Garry Kasparov and controversial American icon Bobby Fischer.
Mr Carlson became world champion at the age of 22.
Reyaansh, a year 6 student at Strathfield South in Sydney's inner west, trains about five hours a day during the week, one hour before school and then four hours in the afternoon, and then for eight hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
'My school is very supportive of my chess, so I don't have much homework to do,' he said.
'But of course you still have to go to school and complete whatever you have to do.'
He practises tactics and openings, or the first few moves in chess that dictate the development of a game, and constantly analyses his games looking for errors.
Reyaansh also studies with Polish grandmaster Jacek Stopa through the Sydney Chess Academy, with face-to-face classes.
'He teaches me how deeply you need to prepare to get to the GM level,' he said.
'At the end of the class I'm very tired. The puzzles he gives me are very tough, like grandmaster level.'
For black, Reyaansh loves the Caro-Kann and Queen's Gambit Declined defences.
For white, he loves the Italian and Ruy Lopez openings.
Russian champion Boris Spassky and Mr Fischer are his favourite players.
'I think he (Spassky) was very strong but also a nice guy. Bobby Fischer because he was a genius, one of the best players to ever live.'
Reyaansh was born in Kolkata in India and immigrated to Australia at the age of two with his parents Sounak and Tapasri, both of whom support his chess dreams.
Reyaansh has already beaten GMs, including Australian heavyweight Darryl Johansen at a match in Melbourne.
'It was the first GM I defeated,' Reyaansh said.
'It was a good game, it was probably heading towards a draw but he blundered and I won it.'
Mr Johansen was gracious in defeat.
'He was a bit disappointed, but we discussed some moves after the game,' Reyaansh said.
But there was no time to celebrate.
'I had two games the next day, so I had to kind of forget about it and prepare for the next time.'
The youngster, who likes to read JK Rowling and the Dog Man comic books, has also interacted with legends of the game, including former world champion Vishy Anand, whom he met in Singapore.
'It was like a dream come true. He gave me advice on staying patient,' Reyaansh said.
He returned to Sydney last week after competing in a tournament in Norway and has travelled to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland and Singapore to play against the best players in the world.
When asked what he found really special about chess, he emphasised the intensity of the game and the mental focus it took to win.
'Even if you play perfectly the whole game, if you make one mistake, it's over,' he said.
'You need to focus from start to finish. You can't ever let you guard down.'
Chess is in the midst of a popularity boom, triggered in part by The Queen's Gambit and the rising visibility of grandmasters on social media.
Netflix claims more than 62 million people watched the show in its first 28 days on the streaming platform.
Mr Power has also witnessed a growing number of youngsters trying out the game.
'The enthusiasm of primary level students is refreshing,' he said.
For Reyaansh, finding a 'love for the game' is the first step children should take in their own chess pursuits.
'You have to find your love for the game,' he said.
'Otherwise, you'll kind of feel it is a chore. If you don't love it, you'll feel bored with it.'
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