Chess rookie a king hitter with grandmaster plan
8 Feb 12 @ 09:27am by Stacy Thomas
IT took Rishi Dutta only three months of lessons before he was regularly beating his dad at chess.
Now the 10-year-old Pendle Hill boy is the reigning NSW champion under 12 and placed second in the national competition last month.
Having only started playing 18 months ago, his first big tournament was the nationals.
Dad Debashis said his son was mentally exhausted heading into the decider.
“He’d just beaten the under-10 champion, which took more than three hours,” Mr Dutta said.
“He had half an hour break and had another game. It was a simple mistake that cost the game, but he did so well.”
The youngster, who is part of the Rooty Hill RSL Chess Club, stumbled onto chess when he used to visit Rouse Hill Town Centre with his family.
Dad would teach him to play while mum read books.
“We’d play while we waited and after a few weeks he entered a competition at school, unbeknown to me,’’ Mr Dutta said.
Rishi won and went on to win at district level too.
After his success, the family found a chess club not too far from home which had members who could teach Rishi more.
“The encouragement and support he gets from Rooty Hill RSL Chess Club has been instrumental in his development,’’ Mr Dutta said.
Rishi has a two-year plan to become a Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) master.
He hopes to be a grandmaster, a lifelong title, at 16.
TELL US: Do you know of any young chess champs?
Source: http://mt-druitt-standard.whereilive.com.au
Can he become a GM?
Come on Rishi,you can become a world champion if you try hard!