Vadodara: Until four years ago, very few people in Ratusinh na Muvada had even heard of FIDE (International Chess Federation) ratings or grandmasters.Today, conversations in this village revolve around openings, endgames, rating points and national tournaments as nearly 200 children dream of making it to the highest levels of world chess.At the heart of this extraordinary transformation is 45-year-old school teacher Sandip Upadhyay, who teaches maths and Gujarati but has quietly built one of India’s most remarkable grassroots chess movements.When he introduced chess at the school in 2021, his ambition sounded unrealistic even to fellow teachers—to produce 50 grandmasters and 10 world champions from rural Gujarat.Today, his students have made the impossible look achievable—120 trophies and 179 medals.When Upadhyay started the initiative, convincing parents, who are struggling to earn a daily livelihood, that chess could change their children’s future, required years of persistence. He first learnt the finer nuances of the game himself during the COVID-19 pandemic, spending nights solving chess puzzles, studying opening theory and watching online tutorials before teaching his students the next morning. He bought chess sets, clocks, books and tournament equipment from his own salary, besides paying entry fees and travel expenses whenever promising children could not afford to compete.“I earn because of my students, and they have every right over my money,” he says.To ensure that language didn’t become a barrier, Upadhyay translated The Magnus Method into Gujarati so that children could understand concepts popularised by world champion Magnus Carlsen without struggling with English.Even during the summer vacation, children are engaged every day. Using 10 computers on the campus, they play online games against opponents from across the world, analyse tactical puzzles and study advanced opening strategies—something unimaginable in a village where internet connectivity itself was once a challenge.From Rs 8 lakh to 500 chess sets, prodigies find new backersVadodara: Following the TOI report in Sept 2025, support has poured in for students.Bengaluru-based Rajiv Talwar and Chennai-based Kailash Ranganathan have contributed nearly Rs 8 lakh towards the children’s chess journey. Besides sponsoring travel to tournaments, they donated tablets that now help students train online. The support enabled the children to participate in several additional tournaments across the country, resulting in a string of medals and valuable FIDE rating opportunities.Donors also sponsored the travel and tournament expenses of Neha Chauhan and Divya Chauhan when they represented Gujarat at the National School Chess Championship in Raipur. For the two girls, it was not only their first tournament outside Gujarat but also their first long-distance train journey.In May, Divya, now a Class VIII student, was selected for a specialised residential chess training programme near Trimbakeshwar in Maharashtra.The initiative has also drawn support from international organisations. US-based non-profit Gift of Chess donated 500 chess sets to the school. Instead of keeping them all, Upadhyay distributes many of them among neighbouring govt schools so that more rural children can take up the game, gradually creating a chess ecosystem beyond his own village.
