Calm Shubhi rises to the top of the world

Pradeep Gupta describes his daughter in two simple words. "Calm and composed."

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Given the way 12-year-old Shubhi navigated the tricky rounds at the recently-concluded World Cadets Chess Championship in Georgia, one can say it's not an exaggerated assessment by a doting dad.

Shubhi, a national champion in her age group, scored 8.5 points from 11 rounds to take the yellow metal in Batumi, but not before she endured a stomach bug, a seventh-round loss, and a tense final round.

"It feels great to be a world champion. I feel all the hard work was worth it," she said on Thursday.

"I had a terrible stomach ache after the sixth round and I somehow competed in the seventh, which I lost. I started feeling better by the eighth round but lost one more before the final round. It meant the pressure was intense for the decider," she recalled.

Pradeep, who had accompanied her to the competition, was confident that Shubhi will pull through. Still, the pressure of a title on the line was crushing. "It was her biggest competition to date, and right from the first day, she was confident of winning the trophy. The seventh-round loss, however, was a dampener," Pradeep said.

Many miles away, tucked in his south Delhi flat, coach Prasenjit Dutta could feel the nerves. "It's natural for a kid of her age to get nervous, but I knew she had it in her to deal with such situations. Both of us trusted our preparation."

"She was quite hassled when she called me after that seventh round, but I told her to set aside health issues and focus on the board. She did just that," Dutta, who has been training Shubhi for over a year, said.

"What I like most about her is her natural flair. That's what got me interested in her in the first place. Then, her ability to put in hours is astounding. She is also an incredibly quick learner. She likes to find her own solutions, which is great for a chess player, " Dutta raved.

Her natural talent notwithstanding, the world event needed Shubhi to raise her game by a notch. Dutta knew that his ward needed novelty, and three weeks before the Georgia event, he put her through a rigorous training regimen. Shubhi's positional approach, the coach reckoned, was no longer a secret.

"She finished third at the All India Open FIDE Ranking Championship in Tripura in August. Observing her game there, I realised that she may be missing the spark needed to be a world champion. I thought she needed to be braver and more dynamic.

"For the next 20 days, we worked really hard. We planned particularly well for some Iranian players. A lot of effort went into studying the field and analysing the opponents. We prepared a new line of attack for her. These days every game is available online, so it's important to serve some surprises. We prepared some aggressive openings; it's quite opposite to her style but she really enjoyed it and it worked for us," Dutta added.

The world champion heads into a month's break before the national sub-junior competition. Her next goal, she says with remarkable nonchalance, is to earn a Grandmaster norm in two years. "I have achieved my first two goals — to be a national and world champion. I am all set for the next one," she said.

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