I lost seven games in a chess tournament and here’s why you should too.

Before I start the story, it can be a good idea to tell a little bit about myself. My name is Adiya Sur Roy and I am the founder of the GyanMaster. The GyanMaster is probably one of my life’s biggest projects and the rest of the years of my life will be dedicated to building it. Before this, I worked extensively with one of the biggest media houses of the chess world – ChessBase India under the mentorship and guidance of Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal. I have covered three World Chess Championships, two chess olympiads and more than one-hundred chess events across sixteen countries. All that body of work but I never played a FIDE-rated chess tournament. Yes, as crazy as it may sound, it is what it is, however everything was about to change.

The year 2026 is the year where I have tried to cross every boundary which I never thought I would. On 31st January and 1st of February, I played my first-ever state tournament. The Telangana Rapid and Blitz chess championship. Please note, till 20th January, 2026, I have never sat on a chess board to play any tournament but there I was ready to take on some of the strongest talents of the state of Telangana. Out of fourteen games in both the events, I won five and drew one which was way more than I expected. It didn’t take much time to find out, that I am better on the other side but something crept inside me in that tournament which made me think that I can be a better player than this and that I should be giving myself more chances.

And this was just the starting points of things to happen that would change my life forever. A few days later, I recorded my first song in a studio with live instruments which I had written back in 2018. Yes, it took me eight years to do it and I did. The track is ready, the vocals have to be worked on and then we can hopefully release the song in the first part of next year. Yes, another first. Something I always wanted to do but could never do. And, then came the biggest decision of my life, to leave ChessBase India. On the 30th of April, I parted ways with ChessBase India initially to take a step back and think on the things I want to do in life and then the universe showed me the way and every fallen piece outside my shielded and protected life came together to create the new path of life and thus the GyanMaster was born. What started with humble beginnings, quickly started becoming a life of its own. In the last 110 days as I write this, I have already covered twelve chess events including Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2026 which had World chess champions D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and also organised the Srinath Narayanan Masterclass in Hyderabad. I have generated close to than ten million views across my channels Youtube, Instagram and Facebook. Now that my short story is done, you know where I come from so it is easier to share this part of the story.

Even though, almost everyday I still have to answer someone or the other, why did I leave ChessBase India, I am extremely happy how things are going. Though very few, I am getting invitations to events and tournaments, I am making new connections in the chess world, meeting new players everyday. I have been backed by Amithpal Singh and Maestro Chess Academy as sponsors. Life is good. So, why did I suddenly decide to play a chess tournament and go through the suffering? Specially FIDE rated tournament?Let me explain.

FIDE rated open chess tournaments are the most competitive tournaments in any chess calendar. Some of the best minds of not only the state but across the country and beyond come to participate in these events. New players have a chance to get their initial FIDE rating and rated players have the chance to increase their ratings, score high points and eventually win cash prizes. So the competition level right from board one to the last board is always intense. No one will give you an easy win, you will see players with lone king fighting till the end against opponents galaxy of pieces. As an adult, I turn forty this year and statistically I may have lived most of my life and now the remaining life is where I am going to do things which I have never done because of various reasons but primarily fear of losing. I have always stayed away from the feeling of loss and failure and I realised that has stopped me from doing many things in life and what a better place to get the best experience than in a chess tournament. If you are someone who has no idea of what I am talking about, wait, this is going to be fun.

So the PICA Chess Festival was announced from the 9th to the 16th of August in Hyderabad, which included a classical, a blitz and a rapid tournament. The event was organised by the PICA Chess Academy headed by WGM Pratyusha Bodda and VSM Raviteja. When I messaged them that I want to come and play the classical part and cover the rapid and blitz, within no time I got a confirmation to play and cover the event and you know what, they gave me free entry to play the classical tournament. I have always been a great admirer of the work Pratyusha, Raviteja were doing and this gesture was so heartwarming. So, I quickly signed up on the 7th of August, and had more or less one and a half days to prepare for a marathon chess tournament.

Now lets come to the complexities of the tournament. In six days, eleven rounds of classical chess was to be played. Single round of the first day and double rounds of the rest of the days. The time format is 90mins per player plus and additional 30 seconds of increment from move one. So one game can last upto 5-6 hours and its a rated event, everyone will be there for the hunt for points. Now comes the most stressful part, I know most of the players in the tournament, I know what their capabilities are, which academies they go to and how many hours they study chess and how many hours they practice. You may be surprised to know that most of these players do not go to school, they are learning chess the whole day, 8-10 hours and beyond. They are playing practice games with higher rated players in the academy and also play almost any every tournament in the weekends. So, now that you get an idea who my average opponents are, lets begin. Mentally I was at a very safe space. I saw some games, played some games on my own and tried to keep a very open mind and detach myself from the results as much as possible. I was ready to learn, gain experience and also mentally keeping notes of what I will write later in this article.

The day finally came, the 9th of August, we gathered at the venue, the Sri Chaitanya Future Pathways Global Schools, Miyapur, Hyderabad, which thankfully was half an hour walk away from my home so I decided to take a walk. I reached there before time and once the inauguration was over and the arbiter announced to start the games, reality started to kick in. Everything I trained myself for, was out of the window. A rush of adrenaline kicked in and for no reason, I started believing I can win this game. Yes, in my mind I was a different player then. My opponent is rated 1699, may have played hundreds of tournaments, may knows ten openings by heart and I am the one feeling confident. Yes, I can’t explain where did this come from but that something I had to fight for the next two hours. I can be honest with you here, I went there with no expectations and out of nowhere the expectations of winning began to creep and let me tell you, its not good. Not good at all. In almost all the games I played, out the opening I had great positions but as you know in chess, positions don’t matter unless you know how to convert them. My body and mind started acting differently independent of my control as if I had no relevance and suddenly it will break once you realise its over. You made the move you weren’t supposed to and you can see everything you have built up for the last two hours crashing down. The enemy has made infiltrations and your defence is weak and your offence is left without a plan, but wait, its not done yet. All the people and players you know are coming to see your game, what did you play, how did you blunder like that, oh what a bad move, you can see it in their eyes.

Your mind is crushed, your body is in a state of giving up and you are left there with all the thoughts of why did you actually play that move. You can’t look at anyone, you can’t tell this to anybody? You feel the loneliest person on the face of the earth in between a hall full of players around you. Then it starts to sink in, you get closer to reality, you tell yourself maybe you are just not good enough for this, maybe this isn’t meant for you. One part of you says, just resign and move on, you have better things to do, your opponent has more than an hour on the clock, there’s no way he will blunder with such advantages. The other part will say just hang on in there, lets see what happens and as someone who has played over 10,000 blitz games online, you may think its a valid reason but not here as its pure classical chess. And then, after a few more moves, I decided to resign. I felt a sense of relief but something felt very heavy which I was not prepared for and I understood this is something I have to get over with here and that is the main purpose for me to be here. This is what real chess is and how it actually should be played. My 5000 plus win games in online blitz has no relevance here. If I have to be a good chess player, if I wanted to understand the game more, the psychology behind the game this is where it starts and dealing with failure and losses is one of the most important part of it.

I walked back home that day and tried to sink in with all the emotions, it was hard but I tried to delve deep into it and explore all the emotions I am going through. The primary thought was the sheer gap of training and practice. It was evident and something very clear to me that I needed to work on, and that is why with Maestro Chess Academy we are launching an exclusive batch for adult learners. A curated batch for adults like me who wants to improve but never got the chance to train properly to go through a systematic learning approach. We are launching this at the end of August, will share about it more.

And then game three, I scored my first win and that was in under twenty-five moves and under half an hour. Yes, the win felt amazing and though I knew that it doesn’t count much as this and all my wins were against unrated players but it felt really good and of course a part of core memory to win my first classical game.

As the games went by, I can easily see that with every game, I grew a little. I was not making the same mistakes, my patience grew way more than I anticipated, I could deal with the losses more easily and I started becoming happy of the failures and losses as they were teaching me so much. So many things I shouldn’t do, I should be careful about. I thanked my opponents often for giving me the challenge and the learnings. Yes, I won four games in the due-course but to be honest apart from one, none were easy. They will fight till the end, try to pounce on every missed opportunities so had to alert all the time. As the fourth day came to an end and I had already played seven rounds, I understood that chess is more a physical game than a mental game. I may be wrong but this is purely my observation as I felt the lack of training and fitness in my body. The slight differences in the days I walked to the venue, and the days I didn’t. You may think it might be something my mind was making up but its something I really felt. I remembered many top players even Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand talk about the importance of physical fitness.

Then came day five. Rounds eight and nine are mostly the final rounds of tournaments but here two more rounds were about to be played. This was way too much for me as through all the days of learning, I realised that training is the most important. Both on and off the board. I could see even seasoned players struggle and it was something I had to deal with and yes I did. I played all the eleven rounds, gave my best, didn’t lose material without a fight. Gave myself and my pieces a fighting chance and then accepted the results with grace. I can safely say that I have learned more about chess in these six days than I have learned in my entire life. I see the game through a completely different lens now. I am okay with losses and failure but I want to give myself a chance to show up and fight till the end and then the results don’t matter to me. That’s my win, that’s where my satisfaction lies. Thankfully there are other things I am good at but this gives me motivation to play even more when and where the chance permits. This was probably the best wake up call I could have asked for to be a better chess player and I look forward to learn and train more.