Maternal satisfaction is writ massive on Sangeeta Agrawal’s face as she speaks about how she ready her daughter for the Chess Olympiad. “I made her play in 28 tournaments,” she says from the gamers’ lounge of the Tata Metal Chess India event at Kolkata.
Her daughter, Vantika Agrawal, doesn’t have a sponsor, in order that meant spending an terrible lot of cash. It proved cash effectively spent.
Starring function
Not solely did Vantika play a starring function within the Indian ladies’s triumph on the Olympiad in Budapest in September, she additionally received the person gold on the fourth board. When India’s gamers on the highest two boards, D. Harika and R. Vaishali, struggled a bit, it was the persistently excellent efforts by Vantika and Divya Deshmukh that helped the ladies win the crew gold, as they replicated the nice victory by the lads’s crew.
The Olympiad might very effectively show a turning level in Vantika’s profession. She isn’t just a stronger participant, she is a extra assured participant. She is spending much more time on chess, not having to spend her vitality on teachers any longer. And she or he can be getting higher as a multi-format participant. That was evident earlier this month at Kolkata, the place she completed third within the fast part and fourth within the blitz (she had tied for third however had an inferior tie-break rating).
She had begun because the tenth seed in a subject of 10 in each sections, and did higher than all the opposite Indian ladies — Koneru Humpy, Harika, Divya and Vaishali. She proved herself in a subject that contained gamers corresponding to three-time World blitz champion Kateryna Lagno, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina and Aleksandra Goryachkina.
Vantika isn’t completely blissful together with her displaying, although. “It could have been good if I might have completed third within the blitz too,” says the 22-year-old from Noida. “I misplaced some video games that I had successful positions in, in any other case I might have accomplished significantly better.”
She couldn’t have hoped to do rather a lot higher on the Olympiad, although. Sure, there was an important sport during which she snatched a draw from the jaws of victory, and that made her really feel horrible.
Vantika confirmed character to bounce again after her draw with Alicja Sliwicka in India’s match with Poland. It was her blunder with the queen on the 56th transfer that turned her sport right into a draw and ended India’s nice successful streak that had stretched to seven matches.
Scripting historical past: Not solely did Vantika, second from left, contribute to the Indian ladies’s Olympiad triumph, she additionally received the person gold on the fourth board. | Photograph credit score: Getty Photographs
“I knew I let my crew down, and there’s no worse feeling than that,” Vantika remembers. “That place was in entrance of my thoughts’s eye on a regular basis; my blunder, Qe4, haunted me. No matter I did, my thoughts was stuffed with that place, even whereas I used to be taking a shower, or travelling on the bus.”
Recovering in fashion
She is grateful that her mom was together with her. Sangeeta has sacrificed her profession as a chartered accountant to behave as Vantika’s travelling companion ever since she began enjoying chess as a seven-year-old. “She was telling me how effectively I dealt with strain and issues like that,” says Vantika. “That helped.”
Her outcomes on the Olympiad show it. Within the following rounds, she received two and drew one, guaranteeing that the Indian ladies lived as much as their high billing. “These video games have been vital for our crew, and if I hadn’t accomplished effectively, it will have been disastrous,” she says. “I used to be delighted that I might win my sport and the match towards Azerbaijan. We might thus win the gold.”
She additionally received the person gold on the fourth board, which was truly what she was dreaming of earlier than the Olympiad. “I wished to win the crew and particular person gold medals,” she says. “It wasn’t simple dealing with the strain as we have been the highest seed.”
She says she was blissful to play on the fourth board. The choice to subject Divya on the third board additionally labored. “She was greater rated than me,” says Vantika. “Enjoying D. Harika and R. Vaishali on the highest two boards additionally made sense as they’re stable gamers. Within the Asian Video games, too, I had performed on the fourth board and had scored closely.”
Vantika wasn’t fairly ready for the response again dwelling to India’s gorgeous victory in Hungary. “I used to be so shocked, in reality,” she says, smiling. “A few of my faculty pals, who don’t even know something about chess, texted me that they have been watching the reside streaming of the Olympiad and have been wishing me for my subsequent sport. And after successful the medal, I’ve obtained messages and calls from everybody — my faculty pals, faculty pals, my faculty academics, my dad’s pals, colleagues… My mother and pa have been continuously getting calls, too. In fact, nothing like that has ever occurred to me.”
Nothing like that has occurred earlier than in Indian sport — India rising because the world champions in each the lads’s and girls’s sections on the identical time, that too towards opposition from greater than 190 international locations. Vantika says the ladies’s crew was impressed by the lads, who got here up with some of the dominant exhibits within the historical past of the Olympiad as they received the occasion by a margin of 4 match factors, successful 10 matches and drawing the opposite.
“The boys have been magnificent,” she says. “And Arjun Erigaisi and D. Gukesh have been sensible. I believe it was an ideal choice to play Arjun on the third board, fielding Gukesh on the primary board was a no brainer. They each crushed the sphere.”
She says the ladies’s crew additionally benefited from the selections made by non-playing captain Abhijit Kunte. “He additionally helped us with our openings and motivated us after we have been feeling down after the match towards Poland,” says Vantika. “And I believe the All India Chess Federation additionally did the proper factor by letting our seconds, Arjun Kalyan and Swayams Mishra, journey with us. They contributed rather a lot in direction of our preparation.”
The GM purpose
Vantika’s purpose now’s to turn out to be a Grandmaster. Solely three Indian ladies have achieved that — Koneru Humpy, Harika and Vaishali.
Her mom says she should play much more open tournaments, as a participant must make three Grandmaster norms and attain a FIDE ranking of 2500. She is on 2392, however a yr in the past she was on 2435.
Encouraging indicators: Vantika’s rising prowess was evident on the Tata Metal Chess India event, the place she was the top-performing Indian in a robust subject. | Photograph credit score: Getty Photographs
“She isn’t getting invites to good tournaments,” says Sangeeta. “So we’ve got to play in open occasions wherever we will.”
How did all of it start for Vantika?
“My brother and I went to the chess room in the future and we have been attracted,” she says. “We advised our mom that we wished to be taught it. She enrolled us in an academy. Within the first event I performed, I received a prize. Then I stored successful medals in any respect ranges — Nationals, Asian, Commonwealth, world…”
She has no intention of stopping anytime quickly.
Revealed – November 29, 2024 11:31 pm IST
