Reigning Asian Junior Girls’ champion Tania Sachdeva on why chess means more to her than dancing.

When Tania Sachdeva bagged five titles at the British Chess Championship in 1994, she couldn’t fathom the resulting fuss. Having easily won the mixed juniors titles in the Under 8, 9 and 10 categories, there was a reasonable amount of media frenzy that Tania, then “a little under eight” found strange. “I was such a stupid kid then,” she says, now wiser at 16 years, “I was curious to know what had made everybody go crazy?”

The attention may have subsided since then but an overdose of it still unnerves this impish Modern School, Vasant Vihar student. Tania would rather play chess for the love of the game than get written about as the ‘next Vishwanathan Anand’.

Serious Moves
The youngest of three siblings, Tania’s natural talent at the game came as a surprise to a family that didn’t play the game. Mom Anju was quick to spot the talent and put her under training. Soon, Tania was playing at tournaments with “ very good results”. The results are good indeed— the 1993 Commonwealth Chess title in the under 8 category at Dundee, the 1998 British Championship bronze in under-14 World Chess Championship, National under-8 and under-12 champion, Asian Junior Girls title...Winning also meant hard work, missing out on school and a normal childhood. “It used to bother me earlier, having to practice every day, missing out school and on friends ,” Tania is amazingly honest. The balance has tilted in favour of the game in the last two years. Tania, now in Std XII , has “realised how important chess is to my life and how much it has given me; I practise on my own without mom having to tell me!”

Practice means daily five hours training with her local coach G B Joshi; its nine hours when she’s trained by special coaches. Tania travels around 15 days every two months for tournaments. “It is tough,” she agrees, “But I realise that to achieve something I HAVE to do it and the truth is, I WANT to do it!”

Pawn And Games
Already a Women’s International Master, Tania has set her aims on becoming a women’s grandmaster. With one out of the requisite three norms already in her possession, she plans to achieve her goal in the next two to three years. She idolises Hungarian player Judith Volga while closer home she’s a fan of Koneru Hampi.

Tania is thankful for the interaction with international players and also senior Indian players like Abhijit Kunte, P Harikrishna and of course, Vishwanathan Anand. “They’ve taught me how to deal with pressure,” says the girl who is serious about her game but won’t let the hard work make it a chore. Away from the chessboard, Tania is another typical teenager who loves talking with her hands, talks nineteen to the dozen, loves dancing and Linda Goodman, is given to bouts of giggling and wants to be a firebrand journalist a la Barkha Dutt ! “I love movies, hanging out in GK-I” says this restless Leo-Virgo cusp. That is when she is not bent over the chessboard!