How playing chess changed my life

it was a chilly winter in delhi

i was playing in the asian championship

under nine girls

after just two rounds i got a high fever

my coach and mom insisted on me leaving

the tournament

but i was not ready to quit as it was my

last chance

to win in the underlying category i was

not even able to sit on the board

but still managed to play every game

for three to four hours i lost the third

game

but my passion determination and

willpower

kept me going the warrior within me

rose on that occasion and helped me

fight that difficult situation

after that i won all the subsequent

rounds

i scored eight out of nine points and

won the championship

winners are not those who never fail but

those

who never quit so today i want to talk

to you all about how chess has

transformed me

from an ordinary and shy girl to a

fearless

confident and extremely hard working

person

as a child i learnt many activities

like dance music piano

singing and many sports

like basketball skating karate

and tennis i enjoyed playing all those

activities

but never saw any of them as the one

around the same time my brother vishesh

learned playing chess he needed a

partner to play with him

so he taught me the game after that we

played it almost all the time as you

were too fascinated by it

i saw chess as something that raised my

curiosity

and challenged my abilities infinitely

we insisted our mom to make us join a

chess academy

and so that we could learn chess

professionally

my mom has sacrificed her career

to raise us and help us reach our

potential

as it is said you should start before

you are ready

so we decided to play the delhi state

championship

after just one month of our training at

nine and seven

my brother and i were quite young but to

our surprise

we were not the youngest of the lord in

fact we were shocked to discover

that kids started playing chess at the

age of 4

and we were the late comers some of them

were fearsome leaning champions from the

past couple of years

such was their ability and our

inexperience that we performed horribly

in the

event this was the beginning of my chess

journey

day and night i dreamt of playing on top

boards

and climbing the podium to receive shiny

trophies and medals i also dreamt

of playing for india i started taking

personal coaching at home for two hours

every day

with a single aim winning the delhi

state championship the next year

after one month of our home training

there was an event happening in delhi

i got my left hand fractured but this

couldn’t stop me

i was so deeply involved in chairs

that this did not become an obstacle for

me

and i decided to play in the tournament

i won my first ever category prize

after that club tournaments became a

routine for us

we played it every saturday and sunday

i made many mistakes and cried a lot

after losing the games

my coach always said you never lose in

chairs

either you win or you learn

after few weeks i started winning

category prizes in whichever tournament

i played

soon i got my international rating

i was super excited i was also

inquisitive to know

what would happen if i google searched

my name usually

we search for celebrities and we get

their wikipedia page

photos and many articles on them will i

also get

photos and articles on me to know that i

googled ventika

chess on top i saw my rating profile

okay i had seen that a few times i

scrolled down

on the third search i saw the words

vantika agrawal along with magnus

carlsen

in an russia art russian article

the headline was magnus carlsen

world’s highest-rated player and vantik

agrawal was lowest stated player

although i was glad to see my name with

one of the best players of the time

i felt too ashamed that i was the lowest

stated player in the world

around the same time there was an event

happening in delhi

there i met grandmaster permajin negi

he asked me what was my rating it was

1200

the rock bottom but i couldn’t say that

i felt too ashamed at that point

i decided that i would increase my

rating

and try to reach the top the subsequent

year

i won the delhi state championship

defeating all my opponents

including the defending champion

this was the first milestone of my

career after that

there was no looking back the next five

years without taking any rest

we played at least two tournaments in a

month

traveling all around the country

every tournament lasted for

around 10 days many times

it would happen that we would play one

tournament

in jammu and then in bangalore

or one in bhuvaneshwar

and then in mumbai during those years

i kept making podium finishes via

national asian

world or commonwealth championship i was

also honoured

by sri narendra modiji the then

chief minister of gujarat and the

current prime minister

i was honored alongside vishwee anand

for my achievements in chairs i also

received

president’s award when i was 14 years

old

i acquired my three wim norms

and one wgm norm and became the woman

international master

[Music]

my rating also crossed 2300

at that time i was india number one

asia number two and world number five in

my category

i was at the peak of my career

my ratings were rocketing on an upward

slope

my friends used to be amazed by the fact

that i got to travel to so many

beautiful countries

but to be honest with you all more than

tourism these trips have taught me the

value of sacrifice

as in almost 90 percent of them what i

managed to see

was the road from airport to tournament

hall and back

i was selected for the world youth

championship to be held in uruguay

i was one of the favorites for the

competition

as it is said the best-laid plans go

deadly wrong

just few hours before we were scheduled

to depart

i got a high fever although

i had made several podium finishes the

world gold medal

had eluded me for several years and i

was still on the lookout for it

so i was very confident

that i would win it and decided to go

we traveled for 40 hours

to reach uruguay after reaching there i

collapsed

and then tested positive for dengue

although dengue was a common illness in

india they didn’t even have a single

tango case

so i was forced to quarantine myself

and couldn’t even play the tournament

imagine going so far and not being able

to play

after that i got several other

health issues like my right eye got a

very high power i started preparing

for my 10th class board exams and i

couldn’t look at chessboard

for many many days and then i realized

you shouldn’t give up on something you

can’t go

a single day without thinking about in

2019 i was in

grade 12 instead of studying this time i

decided

to give chess another go i started

dedicating a lot of time to it

my perseverance bore fruit as this time

i won six silver medals out of which

five were for india

these tournaments included national

women senior

asian juniors world youth championship

and some international events i fondly

called 2019 my silver year

i also made my second wgm norm

the same year i went to play abu dhabi

masters

i was playing very fabulously and

was very close to getting my third wgm

norm

in the penultimate round i just needed a

win

to secure my wgm norm and

i was in a clearly winning position i

was

two pawns up in a rook pawn end game and

she had no chance but

i got too excited couldn’t control my

nerves

and lost in the end i was too depressed

and heartbroken

this was not the first time i had missed

a chance

i had missed many championships and

norms

these missed chances have taught me that

we should regret our mistakes and learn

from them

but never carry them into the future

with us

again i was ready to fight back but

the pandemic applied a break to it and

i’m still

on the hunt to become a woman

grandmaster

but the pandemic came with its own

reward

i got the golden opportunity to play

in the 2020 friday online world chess

olympiad

alongside legends like vishy anand vidit

harika hampi hari krishna and many other

prodigies

we won gold medal jointly with russia

among 160 countries

i was very proud as this was the first

time

india won gold medal in olympiad

i felt on top of the world when my name

was announced in the parliament

this journey gives an important message

that i want to share

problems are of two times the ones

within us

and external problems often

circumstantial

if we are able to overcome the internal

problems

then no amount of external problems can

pull us down

they may delay the rewards but can’t

take it away

my achievements in chess are important

but more importantly

chess has made me a fearless confident

determined hard-working and a

self-disciplined

person the warrior within me has helped

me fight difficult situations

in life and today i urge you all

to unleash the warrior within you and

fight this battle called life thank you

you