Bengaluru: Shreyas Royal was nine when his family found themselves at the centre of a visa crisis, with deportation from the UK a very real possibility.
Months later, the young Indian-origin chess prodigy, dressed in a dark suit, made the ceremonial first move at the 2018 World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana in London.
Chess had helped pull the family back from the brink. The then home secretary Sajid Javid intervened to allow the family to remain in the UK, describing Shreyas as “one of the most gifted chess players in his generation”.
A week ago, aged 17, Shreyas, from Dartford, Kent, became the youngest-ever winner of the British Championship, breaking nine-time champion Michael Adams’ 1989 record by two months.
“It definitely was one of my goals going into the event,” Shreyas, who is already UK’s youngest-ever grandmaster, told the Hindustan Times in an interview. “In previous editions, I had stumbled towards the end, so this time around I was quite determined to learn from my past mistakes.”
Getting over the line has often been a challenge, one that he grappled with on his journey to becoming grandmaster. “Sometimes it does get in my head when I’m close to winning events and close to having wonderful performances. But thankfully, perhaps with all the past experience I’ve accumulated for the British Championships, I was a lot more mentally stable and just focused on playing my best chess.”
He’s disappointed to have missed out on the English national team for next month’s Olympiad. “It was a bit unfortunate that I couldn’t make it, but I do understand the selectors’ decision. They had to make the call before the British Championship, and at that particular time, my rating was a bit lower than some of the other contenders, so they made a fairly safe decision.”
Born in Bengaluru, Shreyas’ surname has often been the subject of much curiosity and even deference, in the UK. A numerologist Shreyas’ parents consulted when they were living in India advised that an auspicious name for him should begin with the letter “S” and “R”. “My wife came up with the name Shreyas, which means superior,” Shreyas’ father Jitendra Singh says, “Royal, which also means the same was her suggestion to go with his first name. It’s not our family name or anything. We had no idea then that we’d be living in the UK one day.”
There have been instances in the UK, Jitender says, when Shreyas has been referred to as royalty at chess tournaments. “When he was younger and playing for Kent County, they would sometimes put down his name as ‘prince’ or ‘king’,” Jitendra laughs, “The surname gets him a lot of respect here. After he won the British Championships, one of the commentators said – ‘prince is now king’.”
For the past couple of months, Shreyas has been travelling by himself to tournaments. It started with a solo trip to Poland for a training session with a grandmaster.
“I think the Poland trip and some other events have gradually helped me become more independent and responsible. I travelled by myself for the recent British Championship.”
He’s hoping the stronger he gets, the more opportunities he’ll have to play the major events and looks forward to getting to know the top Indian grandmasters. “I definitely would love to socialise with them. They seem like nice, down-to-earth guys.”
Much like young Indian grandmasters, calculation is Shreyas’ strongest suit. “I feel like I can sometimes have an edge over my opponents, even the stronger ones, because of my calculation skills. I notice I can sometimes calculate a lot better than them.”
Knowing when to switch between calculation and intuition in a position, though, Shreyas offers, has been a challenge. “Sometimes I just try to calculate my way out of a position which simply does not require calculation. Sometimes I try to play intuitively in a position that requires serious calculation.”
The teen who can’t wait to get his braces off, enjoys having activities to turn to outside chess. He took boxing lessons which, he chuckles, “helped his cardio”. “I would say I have a fair bit of interest outside of chess but I believe it’s quite important not to scatter your attention too much. I think it’s important to have a life outside of chess. One that you enjoy and can use to take your mind off of bad chess days. Of course, at the end of the day, if chess is what you’re good at, you shouldn’t scatter your attention too much or spread yourself too thin. I like having a healthy balance. Apart from boxing, I like playing and following cricket, football and table tennis.”
Shreyas believes the UK chess scene has a “long way to go” before it can compare itself to India. “I am quite pleased though to see the developments that have happened in the UK chess. Just a couple of years ago there was hardly any support for young and talented players. Nowadays, we have the government supporting a lot of the players. And while we still have a long way to go, I think it’s very promising to see how UK chess could develop in the future.”
Much like any young chess player, Shreyas’ dream is to become world champion. The closest he has come to the stage was when he made the first move at the 2018 World Championship match, after which Magnus high-fived him. It’s one of his favourite memories.
“The final goal for me would be to make it to the very top, become Britain’s number one player and one of the best chess players and hopefully compete for the World Championship title someday. Everything else is just helping me get closer to that goal.”
