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
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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