Unique | From lodge room cricket to world junior champion: Pranav V turns into India’s new chess sensation | Chess Information
NEW DELHI: The gentle thud of a yellow smiley-face sponge ball hanging the ground many times barely disturbed the silence of a five-star lodge room, the place 18-year-old Pranav venkatesh and his coach, GM Shyam Sundar M, have been placing up throughout the Chennai Masters in November final 12 months.
Standing tall with a desk tennis racquet — now a makeshift cricket bat — Pranav had already remodeled his room into the quietest battleground ever. And if there was no sponge ball or desk tennis racquet? No drawback! The scholar-teacher duo would improvise, turning a bottle cap right into a ball and the bottle right into a bat, maximising the usage of their restricted sources.
It’s a acquainted sight of Pranav staying together with his mentor earlier than a serious event.
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It’s unconventional, however it works. Cricket, usually seen by the mentor as a break from the psychological grind, has turn out to be a part of Pranav’s preparation routine for chess.
“Cricket, badminton, any sport… we play all of it within the room,” Shyam, who couldn’t journey to Montenegro to witness his scholar clinch the World Junior Chess Championship title as a result of visa points, informed TimesofIndia.com throughout an unique dialog.
A chess connection discovered within the subject of cricket
Pranav’s journey to turning into the junior world chess champion, apparently, started on a cricket subject a 12 months in the past.
Shyam, who runs his chess academy, Chess Thulirin Chennai close to Perambur, usually performs cricket together with his college students to bond with them and hold them bodily energetic.
“Pranav got here to play cricket a number of instances, similar to some other teenager,” Shyam recalled with a chuckle. “Again then, he wasn’t even coaching for chess with me.”
However that quickly modified.
Although he had educated with different coaches up to now, it was solely after his father approached Shyam that their critical chess journey started.
“We began working collectively formally round January final 12 months,” Shyam famous. “By then, Pranav was already a grandmaster. However my purpose was to take him to the following degree.”
Thus started a 12 months of intense coaching, the place Shyam sought to steadiness Pranav’s pure talent in fast-paced codecs like fast and blitz with the endurance wanted for longer, extra gruelling classical video games.
“It’s like T20 cricket versus Check cricket,” Shyam defined. “You may hit the ball out of the park in T20, however in Check cricket, you want endurance to play the lengthy sport. Equally, in chess, Pranav was good at fast codecs, however I wished him to grasp the longer codecs too.”
Pranav, already recognised for his acumen in blitz video games — having even defeated prime gamers like Magnus Carlsen in on-line matches — needed to channel his intuition for velocity right into a extra methodical strategy.
Nonetheless, the transition wasn’t straightforward.
‘The primary few months a strategy of trial and error’
“Initially, it took a while. We labored collectively for 2 months, after which he went to Spain to play a number of occasions. It didn’t go effectively, which was anticipated as a result of I want time to grasp any participant I work with. The primary few months are at all times a strategy of trial and error — attending to know their psychology and strategy. So, the primary two or three months didn’t go very effectively,” Shyam informed TimesofIndia.com. “As soon as I began to know him a lot better, it went very effectively. He was successful occasions just like the Dubai Police Championship and Sharjah Masters.”
These victories, although spectacular, have been only the start.
By December 2024, Pranav had certified for the distinguished Chennai Masters Event after successful the Chennai Challenges Invitational.
It was at this occasion that the coach-player duo cemented their distinctive pre-match routine, which included taking part in cricket in lodge rooms to calm down earlier than a match.
“We used to play cricket within the room with a bottle cap, stress balls, no matter was out there,” Shyam mentioned, laughing. “The concept was to maintain Pranav relaxed.”
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Pranav, a boy of few phrases, has remained humble all through this era. With no presence on social media, he’s managed effectively by his father, Venkatesh, who usually travels with him to totally different international locations for tournaments.
Pranav’s last push for glory
Shyam, being a grandmaster himself, was not unaware that the stress was mounting on Pranav, particularly as he ready for his final problem: the 2025 World Junior U20 Chess Championship in Petrovac, Montenegro.
Because the event neared, making ready for the event was getting difficult. “Simply earlier than the event, we had a number of on-line classes. Initially, we had deliberate to play totally different openings,” Shyam admitted. “Nevertheless it wasn’t only a inflexible plan A, B, or C. Plan A didn’t really feel fairly proper, so we adjusted. What was initially Plan B and C turned Plan A.”
However because the event kicked off, Shyam mirrored, “He began robust, and as soon as he took a one-point lead, he maintained it and transformed his probabilities effectively.”
His final-round draw in opposition to Matic Lavrencic, securing a rating of 9/11, sealed the victory and solidified Pranav’s standing as one of many brightest younger stars within the chess world.
“I spoke to him after the ultimate spherical,” Shyam recalled, his voice full of delight. “He was at all times assured. He informed me, ‘Come on, do not that is my sort of place? How might I mess this up?'”
However for Shyam, the nerves have been unavoidable. “Over the past spherical, I used to be so anxious that I went to the temple. I needed to swap off the web, in fact. After popping out, I turned my knowledge again on, and there it was—he messaged, ‘I received the event.’ I simply thought, ‘Thank God!’”
Successful the World Junior Chess Championship — a title beforehand held by none aside from Viswanathan Anand — has been the summit of Pranav’s profession to this point.
The journey, nonetheless, wasn’t nearly successful.
It was concerning the bond constructed over shared video games of cricket, the relentless coaching, and the mutual respect between coach and scholar.
“We communicate the identical regional language — Tamil — so we get alongside very effectively. We crack jokes, and he is like an harmless child. He doesn’t have many distractions,” mentioned the 32-year-old coach. “It’s a superb relationship. He watches a variety of comedy motion pictures, so we use film references whereas joking.”
As Pranav stood on the rostrum in Montenegro, a smile on his face, trophy in hand, he regarded again — not simply on the hours spent hunched over a chessboard, but additionally at these moments in lodge rooms, the place the sound of a bottle cap hitting the wall did little to disturb others.
