Vaibhav Gautam is a nineteen year old boy from New Delhi, India with a rating of 1293 (as of July, 2019). What's special about him is that he has achieved an international rating and played in the 2019 Commonwealth Championship in the U-20 Open category despite his disability (He has cerebral palsy since birth). Our blog had a chance to interview him and ask him about his resilient attitude in life and not giving up at any cost for anything. He is supported by his father who accompanies him for the tournaments in Delhi and sits next to him during the match to write down the notations. In fact, one is absolutely stunned to see even his father's dedication towards his son's career. Although he has a shop to look after, he is always with his son whenever Vaibhav participates in any tournament. In fact, it was the father who first brought Vaibhav into the game of the sixty-four squares. (It was this kind gentleman who also agreed to give us the interview for the Checkmate blog!) Vaibhav has been playing chess since a long time, but he competed in his first tournament at the Parsavnath Delhi International tournament in January, 2017. He achieved his rating in this first attempt itself. The Magnus Carlsen fanboy, Vaibhav looks to conquer greater heights in chess, making the Grandmaster (GM) title his goal. Despite his disability, he has not slowed down on any part and continues to train hard on the game. He is solely focusing on chess as of now and has no plans to digress from his aim to become a GM soon. We, at the Checkmate Blog and Project, wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours. Note- If you have any interesting stories to share on our blog, please do send an email on [email protected]. Comments are closed.
|