Meet India’s chess tragics: A corporate honcho, a chocolatier, a film-maker, a content-creator & a superfan in cycle

An avid follower of the game, Natoo began travelling to tournaments. What started as casual meet-ups, taking photos and selfies, soon evolved into a social media presence. This new career was born from a place of fear. “I had so many photos and videos on my phone, and I thought I needed to store this cool stuff before I lost it all. That’s when I opened my Instagram channel, ‘Chess With Lokesh,’” he said.

He began uploading content occasionally. As he persisted, Natoo began emailing organisers about his work. His dedication helped him secure a spot in a corporate simul (simultaneous) event against Viswanathan Anand. It was there that his overwhelming passion for chess caught the attention of Sameer Pathak, who would later become the CEO of the Global Chess League (GCL). Pathak was impressed by Natoo’s consistent outreach and his ideas for the new league.

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Since then, Natoo has strategically used his leaves from work to cover major chess events worldwide. He hasn’t missed an edition of the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz in Kolkata or the Chennai Grandmasters event. He travelled to Singapore for the Gukesh vs. Ding Liren World Championship match and covered Norway Chess and the FIDE World Cup in Goa. He has also shot 20 podcasts for GCL for the Amazon platform.

Despite his success, with nearly 2,00,000 followers across social media and a staggering 160 million views during Norway Chess alone, Natoo, who has worked in telecom, e-commerce, and real estate, has no immediate plans to become a full-time content creator.

Tirelessly cycling in his quest to meet a champion

Meeting World Champion D Gukesh is the only dream for 31-year-old Rahul Kamble. So strong was this desire that the chess trainer from Belgaum, Karnataka, cycled nearly 850 kilometres to Chennai just to see the new champion after his triumph over Ding Liren last year. This journey, however, came at a great personal cost. When his school where he teaches chess denied him leave for the cycling tour, Kamble chose to quit his job and pursue his dream anyway.

Kamble first began his cycling tour in March 2024, just as Gukesh was making history by winning the Candidates Tournament in Toronto. As news of Gukesh’s progress spread, a friend suggested to Kamble that his journey was bringing the young star good luck. The friend urged him to continue, hoping his tour would “bring Gukesh more luck” in the upcoming World Championship. This solidified Kamble’s resolve, transforming his personal quest into a mission to meet the champion and share his story.

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Yet, his mission faced a heartbreaking pause at the start of the year when his brother-in-law, an Army man suddenly passed away. Forced to abandon his bicycle in Chennai, where the forest department had given him shelter, Kamble returned to Belgaum to be with his grieving sister.

Back home, his old job was gone. He began serving tables while still teaching chess to children.

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Later, he and two fellow trainers brought students from their small academy to the FIDE World Cup in Goa, hoping finally to meet Gukesh. Unfortunately, by the time Kamble arrived, Gukesh had already been knocked out.

Undeterred, Kamble is now raising funds to retrieve his bicycle from Chennai and restart the journey that was so abruptly halted.

Capturing the human side of chess, frame by frame

Kshitij Deshmukh is an engineer by profession but a filmmaker at heart. After earning his degree from NIT Trichy, his twin passions for filmmaking and chess drew him to Goa to bring a dream project to life.

Deshmukh began playing chess at age seven, eventually earning an official FIDE rating and representing Maharashtra in national championships. After the 2016 nationals, he paused his chess career to prepare for engineering entrance exams. He enrolled at NIT Trichy in 2018, but a turning point came during the COVID-19 pandemic. “To my luck, COVID happened when I was in my second year,” Deshmukh recalls. A request from an old teacher to tutor their son in chess reignited his connection with the game, launching his teaching journey.

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He realised teaching chess provided an income stream and a way to stay connected to the sport. Combining this with his childhood passion for writing and theatre, he contacted Marathi newspaper Sakal, contributing to coverage of the 2021 Chess World Cup. After graduation, he honed his skills at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), where he produced several short films.

The announcement of the FIDE World Cup in Goa was the perfect opportunity. It reminded him of the 2022 Chennai Olympiad, where he had volunteered. “I observed that electric atmosphere,” he said. “So many human stories emerged there, which we often ignore for the analytical side of chess. I was always curious to capture those moments.”

Graduating from FTII this year gave him the drive to pursue the idea. After persistent efforts, he received positive feedback from ChessBase India and Chess.com-India and flew to Goa. There, he recorded a four-episode documentary focusing on the players’ lives, their support systems and families. He is now editing the footage, with plans to release the documentary within a fortnight.

One passion, many roles

For Dimple Chainani, chess has become her one constant in life. Once an amateur player, her life took a significant turn when she volunteered at the 2022 Chess Olympiad in Mahabalipuram. There, surrounded by like-minded chess enthusiasts, she realised how she could build a career while staying connected to the sport.

Chainani is now a dedicated chess professional, functioning as a player, a coach for beginners and intermediate students, and a full-time content creator. “Before the 2022 Olympiad, I was unrated, but that’s when I started my chess journey once again,” she shared. “Now I’m a coach with clients from all over the world. I work across different time zones training beginners and intermediate players. That’s how I earn my living.”

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Chainani reinvests her income from coaching back into her own development as a player, funding tournament trips and hiring a personal trainer. Like many others, she used her free time during the pandemic to learn video editing, and now runs a YouTube channel named “Learn Chess With Dimple,” where she has uploaded over 300 videos.

Her trip to Mahabalipuram continues to pay dividends in different ways. Chainani won a “best selfie” contest run by Chessbase India, thanks to pictures she took at the Olympiad with legends like Judit Polgar, Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen and D Gukesh. As the contest winner, she was flown to Goa for the 2025 World Cup.

A chocolatier who is helping grandmasters go the distance on the board

For Nayanava De, a 35-year-old software engineer from Bengaluru, it all began with a simple purpose: to create a healthier chocolate for his three-year-old daughter.

This plan for a birthday party return gift soon evolved into Melted Joy, a chocolate brand which also claims to help chess players maintain peak mental performance. De, who holds a degree in nutrition and fitness science, explains: “The brain has the highest mitochondrial density, burning a tremendous amount of energy during a game,” he said. While the brain typically uses 20-25% of the body’s energy at rest, De estimates that chess can increase this by another 20%.

“One needs carbohydrates to fuel that effort, but standard carbs cause a sugar spike followed by a crash. This leads to hypoglycemia, fatigue, low energy, and lethargy.”

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Dissatisfied with existing alternatives, De was sceptical of artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols, noting that “there is no concrete evidence they are entirely safe, nor that they are entirely unsafe.”

This pushed him to develop his own solution.

He created a chocolate sweetened with honey and rich in dark cocoa from Kerala. The product was a success among players at the recent chess World Cup in Goa. Top grandmasters like Vidit Gujrathi, Anish Giri, and Surya Shekhar Ganguly have tried his chocolates and given positive feedback.