Best way to pursue chess is by not having a safety net: Vedant Panesar

Bengaluru: Earlier this month, a lesser-known Indian returned from Wijk aan Zee with a first-place finish. While Praggnanandhaa won the much-vaunted Masters title in the Dutch coastal village, becoming only the second Indian to do so after Viswanathan Anand, Vedant Panesar, a 21-year-old from Andheri, Mumbai, who shared the same playing hall, topped the Qualifiers. It earned him a spot in next year’s Wijk aan Zee Challengers.

He ventures that he’s picked up over a dozen International Master (IM) norms along the way. Panesar, who has an Elo rating of 2446, interestingly, has chosen not to apply for an IM title.

“I completed my IM title back in 2023, maybe November or December. But I decided not to apply for the title,” Panesar told HT, “I want to be detached from results and focusing solely on my growth and process. An IM title might open up doors and help with tournaments. But I was ready to give it up. One of the problems I’ve observed with a lot of players, especially in Maharashtra, is that once they get the IM title, they either retire or switch to coaching. So, I told myself that the best way to pursue chess is by not having a safety net.”

Panesar finished unbeaten and half a point ahead of the rest of the field in Wijk aan Zee with 6/9.

“Wijk aan Zee was nothing like anything I’d seen before – a complete chess village. It’s a very small place, with hardly a few thousand people. There is not much to look around and its very cold and windy. Every cafe, every place you go to, has chess. It’s almost impossible to find someone who doesn’t play chess. Even my Airbnb host was a chess player.”

Though he has a full-time coach in Hungarian Grandmaster (GM) Krisztian Szabo, Panesar reckons what works well for him is spending a lot of time training together with peers.

“Before Wijk aan Zee I had a training camp with some of my friends, who are also players. They were gracious enough to come over to my house and stay and train together with me for a week. What I’ve observed is that if two players can actually come together and practice together, you can save up on coaching because you can learn a lot together, grow together. This approach works for me so I don’t need to be very coaching intensive because I learn a lot through my peers as well.”

Panesar took up chess when he was around nine or ten years old and it happened in the most random fashion. He went on to win the Under-17 national title. “My mother got a call one day that there was an opening in a chess class and asked me if I would like to go. I didn’t want to go for my tuition classes that day, so I said yes to chess,” laughs Panesar. “I was not very serious about it. I took a break from chess for a year when I was in Class X. It’s only after I finished my graduation that I began focusing entirely on chess.”

He has a GM title on his mind next and says he’s missed a chance to make a norm a couple of times now. One of the reasons Panesar chose not to apply for an IM title, is to sustain his drive to become a GM. It’s the title he cares most about. He’s hoping to achieve it this year.

“It can be extremely hard to make a living out of chess, unless you reach a certain level,” says Panesar, “Luckily, I have a sponsor now (Old Bridge Capital, a portfolio management services firm) and it’s liberating to have support for my tournament and coaching expenses. I can play my original, attacking style and not hold back.”

Panesar is “inspired” by the journey and success of India’s top crop of young players. “I’ve known Arjun and Gukesh. I’ve even played Gukesh a couple of times. I didn’t get a chance to chat with them at Wijk aan Zee. Arjun wasn’t having a great tournament and Gukesh was always surrounded by fans.”

Aside from playing chess, coaxed by friends, Panesar has been creating short-form social media content about his chess journey. “Things like how I got here, my pre-game training routine. I post maybe one or two videos a month on Instagram. Sometimes I go for months without posting. But it has helped me build a community. I get a lot of messages of support before and after events. It’s still a very small account but manages to catch attention. It’s one of the reasons I guess I ended up getting a surprise invitation to Wijk aan Zee.”