Almost a month ago, 16-year-old Kumar Gaurav was crowned the Indian Junior Champion, 2016. This title has been won previously by names such as Viswanathan Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, Abhijeet Gupta. But there is more to the boy from Bihar who surprisingly came from behind to become the champion. Read the story of Kumar Gaurav and his siblings, as they pursue their dream of leading a better life with chess.
Black and white boxes on the chessboard, the game where you choose your side, choose your army, and destroy the king of the other color, travelling one box to another, might just be a brilliant idea to pass your time, but for this brother duo from Bihar’s Araria, the board game is beyond the black and white boxes, it mostly runs between the grey boundaries of the game.
It is the story of Kumar Gaurav and Saurabh Anand. The elder sibling Kumar is the current junior national chess champion, while his younger brother Saurabh grabs the National under-9 title. It’s been years the teenage chess masters are bringing glory to the state, but the journey to their success has a lot of tragedies.
From mortgaging their house, to travelling in a general compartment for the Tournament, the brothers have seen it all.
Back in 2012, Kumar’s father had to mortgage their house to send him to the World youth Championship, which was in Slovenia. In an Interview to the ‘chessbase‘ Kumar said, “Our father is an Advocate in Araria Court. He earns with varying frequency, but the income is low. In that, we have to manage the house expenses, and also the expense for chess,” he further added that “Sometimes, we have to borrow money to play tournaments, and we mortgage the house to assure the lenders.”
In the recent National U-19 Championship conducted in Rajahmundry( Andhra Pradesh) where Kumar won the title of junior national chess champion, Kumar and his brother Saurabh along with three other players had to travel on a unreserved ticket for the game. They all had to share the same seat for the journey.
But as they say “where there is will, there is a way”, when their financial condition did not allow them to get trained in National capital, they took help from the Internet instead. They trained themselves with the help of Internet, and both brothers coach each other with the skills they have earned.
The Struggle of these brothers is paying them back, with their back to back victories. At this rate Bihar is surely going to get its first Brother Duo Grandmasters soon.
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Quote of the day:“If revenge motivates you, go for it! But the main thing is to set your game in order." ―Vishwanathan Anand
