‘Magnus Carlsen ko draw kar diya!': Meet the 9-year-old chess prodigy from Delhi who held his own against a Grandmaster

Indian Express

14 hours ago

On the morning of June 24, sitting in a hotel room in Batumi, Georgia, Aarit Kapil made a decision that would have people talking for weeks to come.
The nine-year-old was in the country to compete in the prestigious FIDE World Cadets Cup, battling it out in the under-10 category. At 8 am that day, on a whim, he decided to log into chess.com and play their well-known Titled Tuesday online blitz event.
Organised twice every Tuesday, this tournament is only open to players with FIDE titles (like Grandmaster (GM), International Master, Candidate Master, etc.) This particular Early Titled Tuesday had elite GMs like Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik — and Magnus Carlsen — competing in it.
Aarit's parents were on a phone call when he rushed out shouting, 'Draw kar diya, Magnus ko draw kar diya! (I got Magnus to draw)'.
It took his parents a few seconds to process his words before they erupted in celebration.
For them, Aarit's near success against the formidable chess grandmaster was almost natural. In December last year, Aarit defeated Grandmaster Raset Ziatdinov. In February this year, he had gathered enough points to become a Candidate Master.
'He doesn't get nervous when facing big players. He gets really excited,' said Nisha Kapil, his mother, who often accompanies him to his tournaments.
Aarit, with his round Harry Potter-like glasses, smiled shyly beside her. 'All I think about is that I need to beat them… I always keep looking out for mistakes they can make,' he said softly, almost under his breath.
It was four years ago that Aarit's parents noticed his prodigious talent for the game.
'I'm a casual player and used to often play online,' said Vijay Kapil, the boy's father.
'He had come to me and asked what I was doing, and I taught him. Within a week, he was beating me at the game,' he said.
At first, his parents believed it to be a fluke and tried testing his abilities. 'We would feel bad that he's beaten us,' laughed Nisha, adding, 'So we'd make the game tougher for him. We'd take away a few pieces, randomly reduce his points… and he still kept beating us at it. I think that's when we realised that he has a true talent for the game.'
Aarit was put into coaching with International Master (IM) Vishal Sareen. Within a week, his father said, Aarit had won an international tournament with a Rs 15,000 cash prize.
'I was shocked. I mean, he was only five years old,' Vijay said, laughing as if he still couldn't believe it.
Over the years, Aarit's rise has been meteoric. His coaches, too, believe that the young boy prodigy has the makings of a future Grandmaster.
Yet, Aarit has suffered his fair share of losses, too. In the 37th National Under-9 Open in 2024, Aarit went up against Nidhish Shyamal — a boy who had, similar to Aarit, started playing chess at the age of five and was a formidable opponent by the time he was nine years old.
In the final, Shyamal was trailing Aarit by half a point. Aarit, confident of pocketing the match, decided to play fast and loose with his moves.
'I had defeated Nidhish in the rounds before, so I thought it would be an easy match. But I didn't know that he had a walkover in one of the previous rounds and had a better tie-break score than me,' said Aarit.
In his self-confessed hubris, Aarit stretched the match longer, perhaps relishing his opponent's squirming. Yet at the worst possible moment, towards the end, Aarit made a mistake and Nidhish lunged at the opportunity.
While both scored a 9.5 out of 11, Nidhish's better tie-break score pushed him over the victory line.
'I was angry with myself,' confessed Aarit. Yet, he didn't let himself wallow in his defeat. 'I came back and kept practicing,' he said quietly.
His parents, too, are careful not to let him feel too much of the pressure. 'Half the battle is won when he is confident,' said Nisha.
'We are optimistic that if he doesn't get the gold in one tournament, he'll win a bigger one next time. Besides, it's like mutual funds. If you want to create wealth, you must see volatility. Jo game mein tika rehta hai, wo hi aage badhta hai (Those who stick with the game are the ones who move forward),' said Vijay.
However, Aarit's flourishing career has taken a financial toll on the family. The husband and wife duo runs a mutual fund-distributing business. They rent a modest two-bedroom apartment in Mayur Vihar and have little to no sponsors funding their child's dreams.
Except for a Rs 25,000 grant each month from the All India Chess Federation for the last three months, the family has little help to fund Aarit's tournaments abroad.
'It's easier to get sponsors in the Southern states or Maharashtra, but there is no culture around chess in the North. It's been difficult to single-handedly fund my son's dreams,' said Vijay.
But the father is determined to help Aarit realise his dreams, no matter what. 'When I was young, my father didn't have a lot of money to fund his children's extra-curricular activities. It made me decide then that when I grow up, my children will want for nothing,' he said.