Yuzuvendra Chahal goes back to his old passion

XtraTime Web Desk: India leg spinner Yuzuvendra Chahal on Monday went back to his old passion chess, as he participated in an event organized by chess.com. The leg spinner said chess taught him to be patient on the cricket field. A former national Under-12 chess champion, Chahal also has the distinction of representing the country at the World Youth Chess Championships, and is listed on the World Chess Federation (FIDE) website. His Elo rating is 1956.

In a freewheeling interaction with Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta and International Master Rakesh Kulkarni before the event got underway, Chahal said, “Chess taught me patience. In cricket, you may be bowling well but you may not get wickets. Like in a Test match you may have bowled well in a day but not got wickets but you have to come back the next day so you need to be patient. Chess has helped me a lot in that way. I have learnt to be patient and get batsmen out.”

“Like, in a Test match, you may have bowled well in a day, but not got wickets, but you have to come back the next day so you need to be patient. Chess has helped me a lot in that way. I have learnt to be patient and get batsmen out.”

Asked about the decision to choose cricket over chess despite doing fairly well in the board game, Chahal, who has played 52 ODIs and 42 T20 Internationals, said he did so because he had more interest in cricket.

“I had to choose between chess and cricket. I spoke to dad who said the choice was (yours). I had more interest in cricket and opted for it,” said Chahal.