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Chess Olympiad gold-medallist Vantika Agrawal is someone who has learnt the sport the hard way.
Hailing from Noida in Uttar Pradesh, she had little chess infrastructure to motivate her to pursue the sport.
However, her determined mother, who wanted her children to excel in whatever they pursued, supported Vantika in overcoming numerous challenges and making a mark in a sport dominated by players from South India.
Vantika finally helped India achieve its biggest glory in team chess by winning the first-ever Olympiad gold in Budapest recently. The 21-year-old is now aiming to become a Grandmaster, which could happen as early as next year.
But she knows the challenges that lie ahead -- the least being the countless tournaments she will have to play across the world and the monetary burden it will put on her parents.
"It has not at all been easy reaching this level, because the culture here (in north India) is all about excelling in academics, and if you want to play chess or any other sport, you need to devote extra time to that," said Vantika, who is a brand ambassador of the ongoing Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in London.
"I remember that even in school while they were supporting me, nobody really knew about chess. So, when I used to go and tell them about my achievements, they were completely uninterested... I mean, even in Shri Ram College of Commerce, where I completed my B.Com (Hons), they still don't know that I have won the Olympiad gold," says Vantika, whose mother quit her job with a leading multinational to be with her daughter as she pursued success in the sport.
For Vantika, the Hangzhou Asian Games women's team silver medallist last year, chess started out of curiosity to explore more sport after she had dabbled a bit in arts, music, dance, karate and a lot of other things during ‘zero' period in school.
"I joined karate classes and did a bit of Bharatnatyam, learnt music and vocals. I was seven-and-a-half years old when I developed a liking for chess. I think the first tournament I played I won some prize money. I think prizes, to some extent, became a motivation to continue playing chess.
But with coaches hard to come by, she spent 5-6 hours online every day to learn the finer nuances of the game. Luckily, she got a coach in Manish Uniyal, who was willing to invest his time.
"I think, I won the Asian Championship Under-9 title in Delhi in 2011. I kept playing 'Open' tournaments all over India, travelling with my mother to every single state... Odisha, Maharashtra, Mumbai, everywhere."
Even as she continued to pursue the sport, there was no way Vantika was willing to compromise on her academics.
"I used to play a tournament, come back and the next day, I used to have some exam or something. I remember giving 2-3 unit tests on a single day," she recalled.
Balancing chess with academics continued for a good 10 years and she excelled in both, winning several national titles and also scoring big in school and college.
"I remember my first medal, a silver in the Under-11 Nationals. I achieved my first international success by winning the Under-14 World championship bronze in 2016."
While the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it several challenges, Vantika got plenty of time at her Noida residence to sharpen her skills. Soon, she went on to win the mixed team gold in the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad.
A consistent show at the Olympiad in Budapest recently added another feather to Vantika's cap when she along with Divya Deshmukh played a pivotal role in guiding India to the gold medal at a time when stalwarts like Rameshbabu Vaishali were struggling.
The Olympiad success achieved, Vantika is now completely focused on becoming a Grandmaster.
"So, from 2022 till now, I have competed in 28 Open events to earn rating points to become a Grandmaster. I've been living out of the suitcase. Every month, I am travelling to some place or the other," says Vantika.
"You start getting fatigued... Playing one tournament after another, while also arranging the finances, is a challenge in itself," says Vantika's mother Sangeeta.
But she is willing to invest in her child's future knowing that Vantika has the potential to make it big.
"An online coaching class with a foreign grandmaster costs Rs 10,000 an hour. So, if she does 10 hours of coaching every month, it comes to Rs one lakh. But we are not thinking about money right now. We are just trying to focus on her, make her a better player.
More than the expenses, it's the travel and the challenges to keep her child motivated in a lonely world of chess, which continuously weigh on Vantika's mother's mind.
Vantika knows that and is trying her best to give her mother a present for her sacrifices by becoming a GM.
"I think if I keep trying my best, I can even make it (become a Grandmaster) by next year. Divya Deshmukh is pretty close to becoming a Grandmaster. But, yeah, I will also keep trying and see how things go," Vantika said.