Only eight years old, he gave his much senior rivals a run for their money at the ongoing 5th JRD Tata All India Open Chess Tournament in Jamshedpur on Monday.
Assam's whiz kid Shahil Dey beat International Master (IM) Deewakar Prasad Singh of Jamshedpur and forced another IM Krishna Teja of Andhra Pradesh to a draw at the ongoing 5th JRD Tata All India Open Chess Tournament on Monday.
The boy defeated Singh, who works for Railways in Chennai, in the sixth round. He secured a draw against Teja in the seventh.
On the penultimate day of the tourney, the pint-sized Shahil is now placed third on the table with 5.5 points, along with 11 others.
But, this is child's play to those who know Shahil.
The third grader of Guwahati's Maria's Public School, has an Elo rating of 1,579.
He has a Candidate Master (CM) after bagging silver in Under-8 category at the Asia Youth Chess Championship in South Korea this July, becoming the first from his state Assam to have the glory.
He won gold in the Under-8 category at the Commonwealth Chess Championship in New Delhi this June. He also finished among the top 10 in the Under-9 category at the World Youth Chess Meet held in Greece this October.
Earlier, Shahil topped the Under-7 National Chess Championship in Ahmedabad in 2013 and the Under-5 Asian School Chess Championship in New Delhi in 2012.
"I want to be an IM and GM (Grand Master)," the boy said.
Proud father Sanjay Dey, a businessman, said Shahil bagged the CM title from FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs or World Chess Federation) in September. "We are doing all we can for our only son," Dey, who came with wife Mithu to watch Shahil play in Jamshedpur, said.
"Shahil gets moral support when we are around," said Mithu, a former executive at Centurion Bank, who left her job to help her son pursue his chess career. "I go with him to all tournaments."
They are now looking for a sponsor to support Shahil for IM-specific training.
"We approached Calcutta-based IM Atanu Lahiri for training. But, it costs about Rs 1.5 lakh a year for IM training, plus there are other related expenses," Sanjay said. "More tournaments increase ratings. To become an IM, a player requires an Elo rating of 2,400. We are trying our best. Rest is in god's hands," he added.
Chess results
Four players emerged leaders on the penultimate day of 5th JRD Tata Open Chess Tournament on Monday. Women FIDE Master Srija Seshadri (Delhi), Abhishek Das (Jharkhand), Rajesh Nayak and , Baibhav Mishra (Odisha) are leading the table with 6.5 points each after round 8.
