Meet the chess champ

In a conversation with Hyderabad Times, the rising Chess star Pratyusha Bodda gives us a glimpse of her journey and challenges.
For the 18-year-old chess player Pratyusha Bodda, who recently became a Women International Master, the title is only the step closer towards her ambition of becoming a Grand Master. Pratyusha is the fourth Telugu woman to win this title after Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika and Lakshmi Sahiti.
“I am happy about it but I would have been happier if I had achieved it earlier as I've been trying for this since 2011. I had fulfilled the FIDE requirements of being a Woman International Master last year and I was confident of winning the title. And now, winning the title of Grand Master is my aim. I want to achieve it as early as possible,” she says. Such is the drive of Pratyusha.
The Journey
She started playing chess at the age of six. A year later, at the tender age of seven, she won a local tournament that drove her to excel further in Chess. The real epiphany that this is what she wanted to do for the rest of her life came when she won the Under-7 national chess tournament in Kerala.
At that time, she was doing her schooling in Sri Prakash Vidya Niketan in Tuni. “My school noticed my interest and my talent and they appointed a coach specifically for me. Now, Ramarajusir has been training me for the last six years.”
But it has always been the man who introduced her to the game who has been her strength. “My father has always been my biggest support. He introduced me to the game. Though he had to struggle financially to pay for my coaching, international tours etc; he always supported me and made sure I had everything I needed to focus on my chess career,” she shares.
She goes on to add, “Ramarajusir (her coach), supports me a lot too. He makes sure I am constantly motivated. I stay with him for 20 days in a month during which period I train every day.”
The Career
Prathyusha's achievements consistently marked her childhood. She won a gold medal at the Under-10 Asian Chess Tournament in Dubai when she was nine and later won a bronze medal in the Under-12 category at the World Chess Tournament in Vietnam.
“The bronze medal that I won in Vietnam remains closest one to my heart as it is the first medal that I got in a World tournament," she says.
But her toughest game in her entire career, she says, was with Padmini Rout, the Woman Grandmaster from Orissa. “The game lasted six and half hours and I was sure that I would lose but in the end I won the game,” she recalls.
As she lists the likes of Bobby Fischer, Vishwanathan Anand, Humpy, Harika and Hou Yi Fan as her idols, she adds, “Hou Yi Fan is a Chinese chess player and she is among the very few women players to have won in Men's tournaments. I want to be like her.”
The Way Ahead
She already has a path set for herself and a goal that she has her eye set on. “My immediate future goal is to win the Under-18 Commonwealth chess tournament scheduled to take place in Delhi this June. I won the gold in the Under-10, Under-12, Under-14 and Under-16 categories and I don’t want to break my streak. That is my immediate goal and that is what I am training for now,” she informs.
The Winning Formula
Chess is among those games that rely heavily on the mental prowess of the player. And Pratyusha has the tools to help her work on just that. “I meditate every day and I practice yoga for at least an hour every day. I practice chess for a minimum of 6-8 hours every day and later I go for a walk to de-stress. I also listen to music a lot; it is my biggest stress buster,” she says.
Although she admits that she doesn't enjoy “the life of a conventional teenager”, she insists, “I don't feel like I sacrificed anything for this. I don't have the life of a conventional teenager, with friends, etc but I don’t feel I'm missing out on anything. For me, my achievements and my passion to achieve bigger things are more important than anything else.”
If anything, the one thing we learned from this 18-year-old is to keep the eye on the prize and not to falter.
- Siddharth.Rao@timesgroup.com