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News.com.au
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Australian chess prodigy Reyaansh Chakrabarty reveals 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.'
The National
28-05-2025
- General
- The National
UAE chess prodigy Rouda Essa Alserkal, 15, dreams of becoming Grandmaster
Not many can claim to have gained international recognition and success at the age of 15. Rouda Essa Alserkal is one of them. The chess prodigy grabbed headlines late last year as she became the first Emirati woman grandmaster following success at the Arab Women's Championship in Sharjah. The Grade 10 student at Al Mawaheb School, Abu Dhabi, thus entered the big leagues, having started the journey at age four. Her rise in the world of chess has now taken her to the prestigious Norway Chess Open, which opened on Monday and runs until this weekend. Rouda is representing the UAE in the tournament, competing alongside stars of the game such as Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and new world champion Gukesh. All of this has happened rather quickly for the teenager. Rouda said it took her some time to come to terms with becoming a woman grandmaster. 'It was in November. I was very shocked. It was still round eight and they told me if I win the round I will immediately get first place. And that I was going to become a woman grandmaster. It was very stressful. These things take a lot of time to sink in. But now, I feel very proud of myself,' Rouda told The National. Rouda began playing with her father, Essa Alserkal, and other family members. She was soon enrolled in the Abu Dhabi Chess Club. By the time she was five, she began to show serious talent for chess. Her list of wins includes the U20 UAE Championship, the 2017 World Cadets Championship, and many more. 'I started chess at four years old. We had a chess board at home. I used to play all the time with my mum, sisters, with my dad. When I joined Abu Dhabi Chess Club, a couple of months later, I won the Asian championship. 'I started taking chess more seriously when I won the world [cadets] championship in 2017. This is when I started to train more and have higher goals and ambition.' Rouda is only the second grandmaster from UAE after Salem Abdulrahman. The Abu Dhabi resident is proud of what she has achieved, and hopes more women take up the game. 'The chess scene in the UAE is growing fast. There is a lot of support right now, especially for young players. For women, there is a lot of improvement but it could be better. Me becoming the first women grandmaster in the UAE shows that anything is possible and I hope it opens more doors for young girls.' Her work is not done yet, though. Rouda's next target is clinching the main Grandmaster title; she is currently a woman grandmaster which has a lower ratings threshold. The requirements for the main GM title are a lot harder. Rouda currently has a little over 2,100 points in her rankings and needs to rise to 2,500 to gain the overall GM title. The task will only get tougher from here on as she will need to compete at bigger tournaments against better players to improve her standing. 'This means I have to work harder, keep up the grind. Inshallah, I will increase my ratings soon. It will be more difficult now,' she admitted. While Rouda has her task cut out, managing high-stakes chess with the pressures of studies – which she admits has become a lot more difficult now – she is clear about what she wants to achieve on the chess board and in her life. 'My biggest goal is to achieve the Grandmaster title, not just the woman grandmaster title. Hopefully reach 2,500 ratings. And in future, I want to become a lawyer. And if everything works out, I will be a good lawyer hopefully.' For now, her focus is on the Norway Open. The difficulty of the task facing her became clear right away in her opening match on Monday as Rouda struggled against Ukrainian GM Platon Galperin. 'It is sad to not start with a win,' Rouda said in a statement. 'But it was also incredibly valuable. Playing at this level is intense, and I know I'll grow from this.'
