Inspired by Kramnik, How Nagpur Teen Raunak Sadhwani Gave up Cricket to Become India’s 4th Youngest Chess GM

 From an early age, justice meant the world to Raunak Sadhwani. still, he couldn’t pursue it seriously. No club in Nagpur entertained a five-time-old. Too youthful to face the hard ball, he switched to chess.

The plan was to switch back to justice but that wasn't to be.

The club I was playing for told me I can not play for them officially until I was 10 or 11 times of age. I said until also I’ll play chess also we’ll shift again, ” Raunak tells The Indian Express from Dubai where he's playing for the Balan Alaskan Knights in the initial season of the Global Chess LeagueHooked to chess, Raunak noway switched to justice. In 2019, when he was just 13 times of age, he came the ninth youthful player in the world at the time( and the fourth youthful Indian) to come a Grandmaster.

Despite hailing from Nagpur, which had produced no grandmaster before him, Raunak has seen his rookie career shaped by GMs. His case impeccably illustrates how important he has served in the fleetly expanding Indian chess ecosystem. He’s presently being trained by GM Swapnil Dhopade, who has moved to Nagpur. Another GM, Abhijit Kunte, has been his tutor.

At WACA, he has learnt the nuances of the sport under the education of five instructors who bring their unique shoes and influences to the chessboard.

There’s Poland’s Grzegorz Gajewski, who's a long-time alternate for Anand, who later also helped Gukesh finish third at the Norway Chess event and is famed for his work in opening propositions. also, there's India’s GM Sandipan Chanda, who helps the cautions with their mid-game fix. There’s Russia’s Artur Yusupov who's famed for his consummations. Boris Gelfand and Anand also hold sessions for the youths.

“ Those were good classes and helped me get into shape when the epidemic left us with nothing important to do, ” says the 17- time-old. This was during the COVID-19 times. We had this two times. Now we're three or four classes a month. ”

The Kramnik Effect

Having learnt from a variety of GMs, each participating in their own tricks of the trade with him, Raunak can noway forget one training camp he'd with world champion Vladimir Kramnik in August 2019.

Back also, he was still to complete his three GM morals. Yet, recognising his eventuality, he'd been handed an invite to train under Kramnik in France’s Chens Sur Leman along with D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Iniyan, Prithu Gupta and Leon Mendonca. The camp called the Kramnik Microsense India Chess training program, was the concoction of ChessBase.

He was taking effects really calmly. Indeed if he was in a worse position in training games, he'd respond with good moves. I really liked that. I got a chance to play with him compactly. That camp helped me a lot in perfecting my positional understanding. I had great results incontinently after the camp. incontinently after that camp, I completed my third norm in the world’s strongest event( at the Isle of Man) and came to a GM, ” says Raunak.

And while the same bunch of teenagers were invited for another camp with Kramnik in Chennai many months down the line, Raunak still waits for his occasion to learn from the world champion.

I want to work on all aspects, particularly my positional play and computation on the board. There’s a lot of compass for enhancement. You can only do that if you have a veritably strong trainer like Kramnik. I’m staying for my chance. So I’m looking to get some guarantors, ” says Raunak.

He’s a veritably positive influence, ” he says.

TAGS: Chess, Vladimir Kramnik, World Class Chess Players, Chess Players, Raunak Sadhwani