In August final 12 months, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, on the verge of saying a mega monetary package deal for chess within the UK, invited two younger chess prodigies to 10 Downing Road. They had been eight-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan and 14-year-old Shreyas Royal – each British residents of Indian origin, identical to Sunak himself.
For the reason that pandemic, India has gained a repute as a land of younger chess stars, however these two Indian-origin prodigies have made a repute for themselves in England. Final 12 months, Bodhana received the under-8 title on the World Cadet Championship. She can be the World Youth Champion and is presently ranked thirtieth in England within the girls’s class. Shreyas is at the moment ranked nineteenth in England amongst lively gamers.
Over the course of two months, Bodhana has defeated three Worldwide Masters — Lorin D’Costa on the European Blitz Championship in Zagreb final month, and Lela Javakhishvili and Nurgyul Salimova on the European Ladies’s Blitz Championship in Monaco final week — moreover holding a number of others like Grandmaster Elisabeth Paehtz to attracts.
Shreyas, too, has made waves just lately. On the London Chess event in December 2023, he managed to defeat GM Jules Moussard and drew with gamers like India’s Gukesh, a substantial achievement since Shreyas’ score was at the very least 200 factors decrease than everybody else within the event. The efficiency on the London occasion additionally helped Shreyas earn his second Grandmaster norm, which places him on the right track to grow to be the youngest GM to signify England.
From left: Shreyas Royal with Vishy Anand; Shreyas Royal with Nihal Sarin; Shreyas Royal with Gukesh (Pics: Jitendra Singh)
Whereas Bodhana and Shreyas are British residents, their households are first-generation migrants. Bodhana’s mother and father lived in Tamil Nadu’s Trichy whereas Shreyas was born in Bengaluru.
“I’m an financial migrant to the UK, having moved in 2007. I work within the IT sector. Bodhana was born and introduced up in London. She began enjoying chess when she was simply 5 years outdated. We had no plans to make her play chess. She simply stumbled throughout a chess board at dwelling, and began to play,” Bodhana’s father Sivanandan Velayutham tells The Indian Specific.
“I knew simply primary chess, so I downloaded Chess.com to assist her be taught by watching the movies there. Again then, I simply acquired her a free model, considering she may not proceed the game,” he mentioned.
Not solely did Bodhana proceed enjoying the game, quickly medals and trophies – spoils of successful on-line tournaments – began arriving at their dwelling. Her expertise additionally noticed her grow to be an envoy for Chess.com’s app for youths, ChessKid (the app additionally helps Shreyas).
Whereas adulation for the younger star has been unrestrained within the chess group, her mother and father are cautious of letting it get to her head. “Her score is 1856. That you must be 2500 to grow to be a GM. It’s not simple… it’s miles away. She’s getting a number of appreciation due to her age and the way she’s successful. However we simply make it possible for she’s grounded and doesn’t begin considering she’s a legend or one thing. Issues can go flawed if not taken with the best angle,” Velayutham says.
As a faculty child rising up in London’s Harrow, Bodhana doesn’t have the identical luxurious of getting utterly immersed within the sport the best way Indian GMs like Gukesh did early on of their profession.
“On weekdays, she spends most of her time at school. It’s not just like the India mannequin the place you’ll be able to skip college as an athlete. So she leaves at 8 am for varsity after which returns at 4 pm. She performs chess for about an hour a day. There are days after we go for chess tournaments within the evenings. However solely on weekends does she spend two or three hours practising,” he says.
Rishi Sunak with Bodhana Sivanandan and Shreyas Royal at an occasion at 10 Downing Road in August 2023 (Credit score: No 10 Downing Road’s Flickr Account)
Chess to the rescue
Shreyas was additionally round Bodhana’s age when his chess expertise made headlines in England. The story goes that his father Jitendra’s work visa to the UK was expiring and was simply days away from shifting the household to Norway, when the chess fraternity within the nation reached out to British MPs to foyer for Shreyas to remain due to his “distinctive chess expertise”. UK House Secretary Sajid Javid ultimately agreed to tweak visa norms and England acquired itself a prodigy.
“I had initially come to the UK for one 12 months, then acquired an extension on my visa for an additional 5 years. However there was a cooling off interval, so we had been instructed we must go away. We had been packing our issues, after we acquired a name from the House Workplace that we might keep on due to Shreyas’ distinctive expertise,” Jitendra tells The Indian Specific.
Rishi Sunak with Bodhana Sivanandan and Shreyas Royal and their households at an occasion at 10 Downing Road in August 2023 (Credit score: No 10 Downing Road’s Flickr Account)
“Our native MP Matthew Pennycook and Leeds MP Rachel Reeves, moreover the English Chess Federation, actually fought for us to remain. Now we’re British residents,” he provides.
There’s a fascinating story behind his title too – when an astrologer instructed the initials of SR, his mom selected Shreyas (which means superior) and plucked Royal out of skinny air, anglicising his title a lot earlier than he had even been to the UK.
Shreyas, who spends 5 to 6 hours on chess day by day, has come inside touching distance of changing into chess royalty – the GM title. He’s missed the third and remaining norm by a whisker a few occasions, together with on the FIDE Grand Swiss Event. However he’s hopeful that he’ll cross the hurdle quickly sufficient. “Perhaps me enjoying for England is a slight loss for India. However I really feel India already has sufficient chess prodigies. I don’t suppose I’m such an enormous loss (for a rustic like India),” Shreyas says.