Bengaluru: Pranav Venkatesh was five-and-a-half years old when he first laid eyes on an intriguing chess set. He was visiting a relative in Chennai and there was a chessboard set up with pieces shaped like animals. Pranav watched as his father, Venkatesh, lost to his eight-year-old cousin in the games they played.
Once they returned home, Pranav badgered his father for a similar chess set. They hunted for it, had little luck, and eventually bought a regular one and Venkatesh taught his son how the pieces move. “I was particularly fascinated by how the knight moves,” Pranav says. “I enjoyed the game because of the calculation and my love for chess just kept growing.”
It’s been less than a day since the 18-year-old from Chennai was crowned world junior chess champion in Petrovac, a coastal town in Montenegro. The Indian teen is sleep-deprived and overjoyed with a long flight back home ahead of him.
“I have a world title now,” Pranav tells HT, almost in self-assurance, and promptly looks at the bigger picture. “Maybe it will help with getting more tournament invitations. I hope to play the World Cup in India this year. Crossing 2700 Elo and qualifying for the World Championship cycle are definitely goals too.”
There’s the tiny problem of sponsorship.
An IT professional, Venkatesh has had to battle financial struggles to further his son’s chess dream. “I would take Pranav to tournaments in and around Chennai on my bike. It became risky because he would fall asleep sometimes with all the exhaustion, so I bought a car. But it became a liability so we had to sell it off,” Venkatesh tells HT.
He believes there have been “miracles” along the way in the form of timely help. “Microsense stepped in with assistance once when we needed it. During the time Pranav was headed to Serbia for his GM title, Chessbase India brought us help through Sadhana App. Lately, we have been able to use the money he earns from winning tournaments towards his training. It’s pretty expensive to sustain and improve as a chess player so having a sponsor would be of huge help.”
Pranav, who is part of five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand’s Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, began training with GM Shyam Sundar early last year. Shyam describes Pranav as “dynamic, tricky, resourceful and good at calculation”. “The speed with which he spots tactics is perhaps his biggest strength,” Shyam tells HT. “Over the past few months his positional chess has improved drastically, his openings have got pretty good and he’s slowly becoming a universal player tactically. He’s the kind of guy who’s always ready for a battle and looking to play for a win. He’s excellent in the shorter time controls and it can be tricky when you’re working on the longer time control. It was initially a challenge but I wanted him to maintain his strength in rapid and blitz because it’s special for a player to excel in all formats.”
Since they began working together, Pranav has won a bunch of events including the Dubai Police Open and Chennai Grand Masters Challengers. For the world junior, Shyam points out they focused on opening surprises, which paid off.
“Once I get a position, I just love to sit and calculate. I was able to do it really well at the world junior and made very few mistakes,” says Pranav.
A fan of Virat Kohli and Travis Head, Pranav loves playing cricket and evening turf cricket sessions are a regular fixture at Shyam’s chess training camps.
“Even before we began working together, Pranav would travel over an hour from his house (in Porur) to come over to my academy (in Kolathur) to play cricket. Aravindh (Chithambaram) too. There are lots of International Masters and a couple Grandmasters at my academy and there’s often such intense competition among them as chess players that they tend not to interact much with each other. Cricket was a way to help break the ice.
“For a long time now, Pranav and some of the other players have wanted to play at a big field, rather than on a turf. You can hit anywhere. Maybe once Pranav is back we’ll do that. It’ll be a good way to celebrate his win, I guess.”
