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Is this Aussie 11yo the next world champ?

Is this Aussie 11yo the next world champ?

Perth Now15-06-2025
For 11-year-old chess prodigy Reyaansh Chakrabarty, the hit Netflix show The Queen's Gambit sparked a love for the game that now takes him around the world on a quest to become Australia's first world champion.
'During the pandemic, I watched it a little bit, it's one of the things that got me interested in chess,' he told NewsWire this week in an exclusive interview.
'I didn't really know what chess was but I found it quite amusing, the pieces.
'She (Beth Harmon) is like looking up on the ceiling and watching the pieces move.'
Like the fictional hero of the smash-hit show, Reyaansh imagines chess games in his head.
'I see pieces kind of everywhere,' he said.
Reyaansh, from western Sydney, is a FIDE master with a classical rating of 2346 and his sharp rise has the Australian chess world excited.
'He is showing a lot of promise at a young age,' Australian Chess Federation publicity director Paul Power told NewsWire. Australian chess prodigy Reyaansh Chakrabarty is a FIDE master and hopes one day to become a grandmaster. Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia He travels the world playing against top players in tournaments. Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia
The next level is international master, which generally means a rating of 2400 and three 'norms' or performance benchmarks a player needs to hit to gain the title.
And then there is the rarefied world of grandmaster, a huge achievement that takes years of dedicated practice, study and ambition.
Australia has only produced 10 grandmasters from a global field of about 2000.
'It's hard to predict that he is necessarily going to become a grandmaster, but he is certainly going about it the right way,' Mr Power said.
'Should he get to the GM title, Australia would be very pleased. It would be a feather in the cap, not just for Reyaansh and his family but for Australia.'
Reyaansh's ambitions go even further and he dreams about becoming world champion.
'It's a huge call but right now I'm focused on improving step-by-step,' he said. He was inspired to take up chess after watching the hit Netflix show The Queen's Gambit. Supplied Credit: Supplied
It's an ambition that might seem extraordinary for an 11-year-old, but chess is a young person's game.
The world champion is 18-year-old Indian wonder Gukesh Dommaraju, who ascended the throne in 2024 after beating Chinese GM Ding Liren in Singapore.
Before Gukesh, the title was held by Norwegian legend Magnus Carlsen, widely credited as one of the greatest players in history alongside Garry Kasparov and controversial American icon Bobby Fischer.
Mr Carlson became world champion at the age of 22.
Reyaansh, a year 6 student at Strathfield South in Sydney's inner west, trains about five hours a day during the week, one hour before school and then four hours in the afternoon, and then for eight hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
'My school is very supportive of my chess, so I don't have much homework to do,' he said.
'But of course you still have to go to school and complete whatever you have to do.'
He practises tactics and openings, or the first few moves in chess that dictate the development of a game, and constantly analyses his games looking for errors.
Reyaansh also studies with Polish grandmaster Jacek Stopa through the Sydney Chess Academy, with face-to-face classes.
'He teaches me how deeply you need to prepare to get to the GM level,' he said.
'At the end of the class I'm very tired. The puzzles he gives me are very tough, like grandmaster level.'
For black, Reyaansh loves the Caro-Kann and Queen's Gambit Declined defences.
For white, he loves the Italian and Ruy Lopez openings.
Russian champion Boris Spassky and Mr Fischer are his favourite players.
'I think he (Spassky) was very strong but also a nice guy. Bobby Fischer because he was a genius, one of the best players to ever live.'
Reyaansh was born in Kolkata in India and immigrated to Australia at the age of two with his parents Sounak and Tapasri, both of whom support his chess dreams.
Reyaansh has already beaten GMs, including Australian heavyweight Darryl Johansen at a match in Melbourne.
'It was the first GM I defeated,' Reyaansh said.
'It was a good game, it was probably heading towards a draw but he blundered and I won it.'
Mr Johansen was gracious in defeat.
'He was a bit disappointed, but we discussed some moves after the game,' Reyaansh said.
But there was no time to celebrate.
'I had two games the next day, so I had to kind of forget about it and prepare for the next time.'
The youngster, who likes to read JK Rowling and the Dog Man comic books, has also interacted with legends of the game, including former world champion Vishy Anand, whom he met in Singapore.
'It was like a dream come true. He gave me advice on staying patient,' Reyaansh said.
He returned to Sydney last week after competing in a tournament in Norway and has travelled to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland and Singapore to play against the best players in the world.
When asked what he found really special about chess, he emphasised the intensity of the game and the mental focus it took to win.
'Even if you play perfectly the whole game, if you make one mistake, it's over,' he said. Reyaansh meets former world champion Vishy Anand. Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia
'You need to focus from start to finish. You can't ever let you guard down.'
Chess is in the midst of a popularity boom, triggered in part by The Queen's Gambit and the rising visibility of grandmasters on social media.
Netflix claims more than 62 million people watched the show in its first 28 days on the streaming platform.
Mr Power has also witnessed a growing number of youngsters trying out the game.
'The enthusiasm of primary level students is refreshing,' he said.
For Reyaansh, finding a 'love for the game' is the first step children should take in their own chess pursuits.
'You have to find your love for the game,' he said.
'Otherwise, you'll kind of feel it is a chore. If you don't love it, you'll feel bored with it.'
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"It felt like we didn't put our best foot forward, particularly in the first 50 or 60 minutes," Potter said of the Wallabies' first Test showing. "There were a lot of lessons to take out of that one. "They're an incredibly strong team and we know that we've got to come out better and start the game stronger. "But I suppose there were some positive signs towards the end of the game. "If we can string enough things together then we'll go a lot better than what we did." Potter said the Wallabies had no need to address the do-or-die nature of the second Test, as they seek to emulate the 2001 Australian side that recovered from 1-0 down to claim a famous 2-1 series win against the Lions. "Everyone's on the same page; you know you have to win this game to keep the series alive," Potter said. "Emotionally it's very simple this week and we all know the task at hand, so I don't think anyone's got any questions about what's at stake." 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England's World Cup-winning coach Woodward criticised the Wallabies after captain Harry Wilson's decision to kick the ball out to end the first Test in Brisbane rather than chase another try. It might have come as some relief to Wallabies fans that their underdogs weren't mauled by the Lions in the series-opening 27-19 defeat. But Potter on Wednesday said Joe Schmidt's men aren't content with simply competing with the Lions. "It's pretty ridiculous to suggest that the 23 people who played on the weekend have a mentality of losing," Potter said at the MCG, which will host the second Test on Saturday night. "We went out there to win the game, and we didn't win the game. "But it was our intention very much and you could tell from every player in the team we wanted to win that game." He said it had been tough looking back at the first Test, in which the Wallabies were out-muscled by the tourists and trailed 24-5 after 42 minutes. Two late tries added some respectability to the scoreboard and gave the Wallabies belief they can turn the tables in Melbourne, with Potter urging his team to heed the lessons learnt. They could also take pointers from the aggressive performance of the First Nations and Pasifika team, which ruffled the Lions' feathers in a narrow 24-19 defeat on Tuesday night. "It felt like we didn't put our best foot forward, particularly in the first 50 or 60 minutes," Potter said of the Wallabies' first Test showing. "There were a lot of lessons to take out of that one. "They're an incredibly strong team and we know that we've got to come out better and start the game stronger. "But I suppose there were some positive signs towards the end of the game. "If we can string enough things together then we'll go a lot better than what we did." Potter said the Wallabies had no need to address the do-or-die nature of the second Test, as they seek to emulate the 2001 Australian side that recovered from 1-0 down to claim a famous 2-1 series win against the Lions. "Everyone's on the same page; you know you have to win this game to keep the series alive," Potter said. "Emotionally it's very simple this week and we all know the task at hand, so I don't think anyone's got any questions about what's at stake." Potter, who will head from Western Force to the NSW Waratahs in the next Super Rugby season, endured a frustrating night on a personal level in Brisbane. And former Wallabies captain, Michael Hooper, this week suggested Hunter Paisami be injected into the centres for the Melbourne Test, a move that would shift Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to the wing and bump Potter out of the side. The London-born 27-year-old lived a period of his youth in Melbourne and said it would be a dream to play at the MCG. "It's a mecca of sport, this place, in my eyes," Potter said. "If I can be out here on Saturday night against the British and Irish Lions, it would be a pretty special place to play the game." Potter was in the crowd the last time the Wallabies hosted the Lions in Melbourne, in 2013.

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