Gourish, a talented chess player and a student of St. Anthony's Senior Secondary School, believes chess is an ocean-like game divided into opening, middle, and end games. He enjoys playing freestyle and has achieved a good rank in state level tournaments. Gourish advises the new aspirants to learn a little every day and they will definitely come out as great players one day.

The Initiation

A student of St. Anthony’s School, Gourish started playing chess six years ago.

Gurus & Role Models

Gourish says that Vikas sir, who is a FIDE certified instructor and a national instructor and coach, has encouraged him to play every tournament and is also an arbiter. He also asks Gourish to never lose confidence and just get at it. He has organized many tournaments which has helped him in preparing well for his chess tournaments. Talking about his role models, Gourish says that Magnus Carlsen and Mikhail Tal are his role models. Mikhail Tal goes for awesome sacrifices which are not easily recognizable by the opponent. Gourish says that Magnus has been an eight-time world champion and because of his middle-game tactics, he is Gourish’s role model.

The Talent

Gourish thinks that chess is like an ocean and is not a shallow game. He informs that chess is divided into three parts: opening, middle, and end game. Opening is like starting with your pieces and in the middle game you have to calculate your moves which has also helped him in improving his mathematical skills. In the end game, you have to think of ideas to finish the game. Gourish says that his favorite player is Mikhail Tal, as he plays freestyle.

Achievements

Gourish has played in a state tournament recently and got the tenth rank out of 250 players. He says that his biggest achievement is that he went to the CBSE West Zone tournament and scored the fourth rank in the team championship.

A Bit More

Gourish says that his favorite quote is from Bill Gates which states, ‘Fifty bad moves is equal to one good move.’ Gourish says that in chess as well one has to think a lot before playing any move. He is going to be trained under a recently launched private program “Indian Chess School” launched by Praful Zaveri and sponsored by ICICI Bank Foundation. Gourish says that some things in your life are your hobbies and some are passions. When your hobby and your passion are mixed, it makes a great success. “A little progress each day adds up to a good result” is the saying that motivates Gourish.