Diptayan Ghosh

He manages the king’s horses and men on the 1,500-year-old board of 64 squares with consummate ease. Young Diptayan Ghosh (14), a class IX student of South Point School, Kolkata is well on his way to becoming a name to be reckoned with in the world of chess. This winner of the Under-10 Asian title at the Youth Chess Championship 2008, held in Turkey, was designated FIDE Master by the World Chess Federation (Federation Internationale des Echecs) in 2010 after winning the Asian U-12 Championship 2009.

Trained by International Master (IM) Shankar Roy and the Bangladeshi Grand Master Ziaur Rahman, Diptayan has started 2012 in style by scoring 7/11 in the 4th Chennai International Open (an IM norm), 7.5/11 at the 10th Parsvnath International Open held in Delhi (IM norm), and 5/9 at the Aeroflot Open B, accumulating 45 points in the bi-monthly rating period to become the second ranked Under-14 player in the world, behind Russian Vladislav Artemiev.

The only child of Sandip Kumar Ghosh, manager at Electro Care Sales, Kolkata and homemaker Aruna, this young whiz took to the chess board at age four. “In my early years, I was inspired by Magnus Carlsen, a Grand Master from Norway who became world No. 1 at the young age of 19. But my all-time favourite remains Vladimir Kramnik, the GM from Russia,” says Diptayan.

On March 1, his rating climbed to 2,372, making him the top-ranked Under-14 chess player in Asia. His teachers and parents have high hopes for his future and believe he will follow the winning example of world champion Viswanathan Anand. “I want to complete my remaining IM norms and become a GM soon,” says Diptayan with disarming simplicity. No couch potato, he is also into cycling and is a regular swimmer at the neighbouring Anderson Club, a popular hangout of competitive swimmers in Kolkata.

Unsurprisingly, Diptayan loves mathematics and plans to become a computer engineer after attaining GM status by 2014.

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

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