Tania Sachdev was only six years old when she was given a chessboard by an aunt. She took to the game and its intricate moves almost instantly and a fortnight before her seventh birthday, won the Commonwealth Chess title (girls U-8) at Dundee in 1993. In 1994, she bagged five British titles. Since then she has broken a host of records on the way to becoming a grandmaster earlier this year and is currently ranked fourth on the women’s circuit. The 19-year-old grandmaster is in her second year at Delhi’s Shri Venkateswara College and her ambition is to be the world’s top woman player. She has a crammed schedule, juggling studies, chess practice and even dance classes.

Anju Sachdev travels around the world with her daughter, acting as her manager and handling all the intricacies of travel abroad. As a student in Shimla, Anju loved badminton and played at the national level in college. She studied fashion designing and used to run a boutique but closed it down when she realised that Tania needed her around. Anju also runs an NGO for special and less privileged children in Delhi. She’s a protective mother and her daughter’s best friend.

Tania:

My mom is the coolest mom any teenager can dream of having. More than a mother and daughter, we are like two buddies. I can share anything under the sun with her. We chat and gossip for hours and spend a lot of time together. I discuss all my problems and anxieties with her. Whether it’s related to boys or friends, I can tell her any secret and share my deepest fears. But despite all the proximity we share, mom knows where to draw a line and keeps a check on me. At times she gets worried and hyper about who I’m going out with but at the end I always have my way.

It’s a blessing to have my mother by my side, especially when I’m travelling. I get paranoid about everything related to travelling, be it my passport or other documents. With her around, I know I can breathe easy because she is there to take care of all the things. I can then concentrate entirely on my game and stop worrying about anything else. She is the world’s best mom for sure and has been very supportive of whatever I have done so far. The best part is that she has always given me my space. The only time she loses her cool is when she catches me chatting on the phone for hours together. I know she wants me to spend more time with my books and chess. And because she trusts me so much, I know where to draw the line and don’t take liberties. Often we go out on shopping sprees ? be it buying make-up or clothes. Although she has a good sense of dressing, at times she takes my advice on what colours to go for and I also tell her which dresses make her look slim. But when it’s her turn to comment on what I wear, I usually turn a deaf ear. She expects me to dress up according to the environment and place I’m visiting. Most of the times, she wants me to wear clothes which are not very short and revealing.

When it comes to food, my mother is an atrocious cook and I’m glad she doesn’t cook! The two of us often go out for dinner because my dad is travelling a lot of the time on business. At the end of the day, having her with me is a big relief. For me she is a perfect mom and a complete woman of substance. I idolise her and want to be like her.

Anju:

Tania and I have travelled and seen a lot together which has brought us closer and strengthened our relationship. I’ve always been proud of her and encouraged her in whatever she wants to do. She is the youngest of three children. I have given so much attention to Tania that at times my other two kids used to feel left out and complain. Now both of them have grown up and understand that it was required. My eldest daughter, Amrita Sachdev, is married and is an interior designer while my son, an amateur golfer, is studying in Singapore.

Tania treats me like her friend and never keeps anything from me. She’s always been an achiever and done well both in games and studies. Every time we have an argument, she gets her way.

I am a qualified fashion designer and also work for Ishwar ? an NGO. I had a boutique but gave it up when I realised Tania needed me to travel with her. She has a very tight schedule ? she goes to college, takes tuitions and goes for her Ashley Lobo dance classes. Moreover, practising chess daily for two hours is essential. In fact, she also wanted to learn Russian but gave up the idea. I always encourage her to study because it is something which shouldn’t be neglected even if you are a sportsperson.

Like any other sensible teenager, she has a good head on her shoulders and doesn’t get carried away easily. And how does it feel to be the mother of the woman Grandmaster? It feels good but now I’m used to it because she has been playing for years now. We travel four to five months in a year and when I’m in India, I work for my NGO. Her father, Pammi Sachdev, has a furniture export business and travels for long periods.

For a player, life is not always a bed of roses. At times failure can be very taxing ? especially when the initial rounds go well but you lose in the end. For instance, she just came back from a tournament in Istanbul where she was leading in the first half of the round but lost in the last two games which was very disappointing. It is too much of a pressure because everybody’s expectations rise. Failures can upset you as a teenager. But I always ask Tania to accept it as a part of the game and she takes it sportingly. Success hasn’t got to Tania and she is very modest about her achievements. She never talks about them. Even when I ask her to let others know when it’s required, she dismisses the idea. At the end of the day she wants to be a normal teenager.

Photograph by Rupinder Sharma