Delhi-NCR has a number of chess enthusiasts, who share how the game has helped them in their real life. This board game’s popularity has been growing across the country, and many youngsters share how it has helped them make a positive impact in their lives.

Delhi-NCR has a number of chess enthusiasts, who share how the game has helped them in their real life. This board game’s popularity has been growing across the country, and many youngsters share how it has helped them make a positive impact in their lives.

In American novelist, Walter Tevis’s words, ‘Chess isn’t always competitive. Chess can also be beautiful.’ These echo in the mind as one spots youngsters engrossed in the board game, at various spots in the city including some cafés. On International Chess Day (July 20), some Delhi-NCR based youngsters share their love for the game and how it has made a positive impact in their lives.

Chess is one of those games that resonates very closely with our lives. The play of ups and downs, creativity and strategy has its beauty in an inherent quality of teaching the art of patience and concentration, which has always inspired 22-year-old Gurugrammer, Gokul Kumar. He runs a recreational group, CheckMate Chess Club. “I started playing chess when I was 12. Daily school ke baad friends ke saath I used to play. Jinko chess khelni nahi aati thi, unko bhi humne add kiya aur khelna sikhaya. Soon, chess started helping me improve my decision making and problem solving skills,” recalls Kumar, who graduated from Delhi University’s School of Open Learning last year, and is currently working at a bank.

Gokul Kumar, along with his chess club, CheckMate, hosts chess tournaments across NCR.

“Chess has helped me stay calm in every situation, think smartly and make the right decisions. Whether I’m sad or happy, chess is usually the answer to most things in life for me,” says Kumar who somewhere credits the game for anchoring his life during the pandemic. But for Riya Kayath, a chess lover and final year student of B Com (Hons) at Zakir Husain Delhi College, there is also an emotional connection that one develops with this game. “Growing up, my father was the one who taught me how to play chess. Thus, I will always have a special connect with it. Chess has taught me the importance of strategy, and the need to think before making a move. I believe this is applicable in our day to day lives, too. Therefore, I try and implement it in my own life,” says 21-year-old Kayath, adding, “Though studies took prominence at a certain point in my life, I continued to stay in touch with this game, by playing with my friends, some chess loving groups, and even online.”

Truly, as a game, chess can instil one’s lives with a mechanism to enhance personal growth. Take for instance Rahul Bhagwat, a 27-year- old digital marketing professional, who feels that “Chess has knowingly or unknowingly helped me evolve as an individual. It’s a fairly new interest that I have sought in this game, and am really happy that I took it up. I used to lack focus, but since I got into playing chess, I can see how it has helped me work and develop the changes in me. My concentration and focus at work has also improved significantly. It is truly a game that teaches you a lot.”

Kumar, who is also organises chess tournaments around NCR, is optimistic that the interest in the game will grow further. “Like abroad, I want people to play chess at restaurants and libraries in my city. We have started providing chess boards to our nearby restaurants and cafes where we host tournaments. I am happy to see that more and more people are taking to playing chess, and so it should be given the beauty of this game.”

Source Link: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/international-chess-day-youngsters-are-game-for-some-tactical-moves-101658300906621.html