Kolkata : Mitrabha Guha, a class 9 student of South Point School fell in love with chess when he was 4 years old. The 14 year old resident of Ballygunge in Kolkata has already won the Men’s FIDE Master Title in 2009 when he was only 8 years old and currently holds the 2nd spot in the national rankings in the Under-15 category.
The seven time State Champion, Mitrabha said that “I do not have a specific style of playing. However I always begin playing with a specific game plan. Chess is like mathematics. So I plan out every move of the pieces right down to the check-mate even before I start playing a game.”Guha said.
Mitrabha won the Gold Medal in the Asian Youth Chess Championship in 2009 and the Silver Medal in 2011. He has already played chess tournaments in 10 countries so far beginning with the Under-8 World Chess Championship in Vietnam when he was only 6 years old. Mitrabha’s father Raj Guha admitted him to the Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and it was never looking back since then .
Mitrabha played 2 games of rapid chess in the 2016 Chess for Youth tournament which was organized by the Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy at the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra on Sunday. He won the first and lost the second. His parents are extremely supportive of his career as a professional chess player. But his mother, Mrs. Sujata Guha believes that he could have achieved a lot more if they were financially affluent. “ My son has great potential but it is being hindered because we cannot afford to pay 20,000 Rs or 25,000 Rs as the entry fees of the high-profile ‘tournaments’ which are held abroad. I am kindly requesting everyone to financially support my son’s career or else such a budding talent will be lost forever.” said Mitrava’s mother .