Pragnananda’s Invisible Moment: The Making of Vaibhav Suri | Chess News –

NEW DELHI: Master of FIDE (FM) Prasenjit Dutta, a man whose life has been a series of tactical gambles and late-game recoveries, runs a renowned academy in the heart of New Delhi. For years, he followed predictable rituals.

Whenever a particularly gifted student walked through its doors, Dutta would pick up the phone and call his former student, the 27th Professor of India, Vaibhav Suri. He was asking for advice, or, one might say, a brief intervention to sharpen a young man’s mind. “Certainly, sir,” Vaibhav would almost always say. But now, this ritual has been temporarily stopped.This shift has nothing to do with the erosion of their bond, which Dutta described as more paternalistic than professional.

It is about the fact that Suri has disappeared into the high-stakes war room of 20-year-old R Praggnanandhaa. As the young phenom competes at the highest levels of international chess, Suri, now 29, stands behind him as the primary architect of his preparation.

“Now, he is completely focused (on Prajanananda),” Dutta told TimesofIndia.com during an exclusive conversation. “He said to me: ‘Sir, you know everything.

“I don’t want to take my mind off it.” I tell him: Son, I want to hear exactly this from you.

Heartbreak Rs 3000

To understand the man behind Pragnananda’s success in recent years, we must first understand the man who built Suri. Prasenjit Dutta’s journey began in the remote chess district of Agartala, Tripura, in 1989. By 1995, he was the junior national champion, India’s youngest FIDE master, and a prodigy destined for the world stage in Brazil.But when it mattered most, time ran out on his money. “Due to the FIDE’s final fee of Rs 3,000, I could not pay,” Dutta recalls. “As a result, I stayed away from chess for about three years. I thought nothing would come of playing because I couldn’t do anything for financial reasons.”Dutta eventually returned, motivated by seeing the names of his peers in the newspapers. He became a seven-time state champion and a university gold medalist.

Two decades ago, he gradually started training children.In one of the tournaments held in Kerala with three of his students, a local newspaper called him “the youngest coach in India.” There he met a boy from Delhi named Aditya Vikram Ahuja. Dutta agreed to the father’s request to visit Delhi and train his son, and he began teaching from time to time. This was not a regular arrangement, as his academy was still operating in Tripura.

It was at the state tournament in Delhi that he first met Vaibhav’s father, Nitin Suri.“He saw Aditya’s performance improving and asked me: ‘Sir, where do you live? Can you coach?’ I said: Yes, I will train. But at that time, I was not quite ready to stay in Delhi,” Dutta told this website.The turning point came when Bharat Singh Chauhan, president of the Delhi Chess Association, visited Tripura. He toured the small Dota Academy and saw the potential in the young sensei. “Prasanjit, come to Delhi. I will help you.

We need more coaches, your highest rating is 2317. I’ve known you for a long time. Come to Delhi. “I will support you,” Chauhan told him, and this personal encouragement convinced Dutta to move.“I had two months for my final master’s exams. His father was saying to me: ‘Sir, please, please.’ I thought, well, I have a chance here. I will try. If I can’t appear for the exam, I can take it again,” Dutta recalled.By August 2006, he was in Delhi coaching Vaibhav.

Vaibhav Suri, boy with chessboard

Now that Dutta is in Delhi, working alongside nine-year-old Vaibhav has become their daily routine. What he finds is a student whose stamina defies his age.“Since August 2006, I have been training him for eight to nine hours a day,” Dutta recalls. “I was doing my best. I also played cricket and football at the state level. But teaching here from morning to evening, I felt like, ‘Oh my God! “I haven’t taught this before in a long time.”While the coach was wilting under the Delhi heat and mental stress, the student flourished. “The plus point is that when we had long classes, my body would get tired, but the boy seemed energetic, impulsive and crazier at chess. This was the first time I had seen something like this in a child,” he said. “Even after seven hours of training, he still had the energy to learn. I have never seen any student have that kind of energy in class.

“

Suri’s dedication was profound. “From the beginning, he had a deep love for chess,” Dutta recalls. “Over the years, I saw that he never left his chessboard or his bag of chess pieces. Even when he slept, he kept them close to him. I used to ask: ‘What’s so special about this?’ Why don’t you let anyone else touch her?”In an age of digital distractions, young Suri was an anomaly. There was no television, no idle wandering.

If class was scheduled to start at 2pm and Dutta was five minutes late, he would call him: “Sir, where have you been? Come quickly.”

Confidence without showing off

As the years passed, their relationship developed into a friendly rivalry. Dutta, who is in his 20s and hovering around the 2300 ranking, raced against a pre-teen Suri to see who would claim the International Masters (IM) title first.“Wherever he plays, I will play too,” Dutta said. It was a complete family atmosphere.

His family treated me like their son.”Surrey’s first national championship, U-9 in Solapur, saw him finish second. Later, he was selected to participate in the Asian and World Championships. “That’s when I got my first laptop, which his father gave me as a gift, for proper training,” Dutta smiled.

Suri has already demonstrated a depth of arithmetic beyond that of his teacher. Dota will test him with complex situations from the books.“I did it just to check,” Dutta added. “The White King is here, the Rook is here, the Knight is here.

He gave the correct answer. Carefully, he thought for five minutes and then answered again. He finished an entire book with me that way. I was amazed. I realized then that it would be very difficult to stop this player.

Sorey’s style became defined by strong, positional awareness, which allowed him to play with terrifying confidence. Dutta remembers the state tournament in which Surry faced a tougher opponent.

“He said, ‘Sir, my next round will be against this strong man. What should I play?’ “Play Pirc Defense,” I told him casually.

I never fully prepared or showed him the line. However, he went and won. What confidence! I could never say to anyone else: “Just play this game and you will win.”Vaibhav Suri became India’s 27th Grandmaster in 2012. Known as the cool and composed person in the ring, he spoke very little but calculated everything on the board.It is these traits, the lack of need for publicity, the refusal to show off, that made him the perfect second place to R Praggnanandhaa. Read also: “We saw tanks on the road”: What it’s like to play chess amid regional conflictIn the modern era, the latter is part sparring partner, part data analyst, and part psychological anchor. Suri, with his exceptional positional style and total immersion, became the hidden hand behind Prague’s most daring maneuvers.He concluded Dutta said, “He never seeks fame.” “Even in front of the camera, he remains calm. I feel proud inside that he picked a good player in Pragnananda and focused seriously.”