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The Hindu : Vishwanathan Anand’s continued success at the World Championships has been an impetus for many parents in Bangalore. Youngsters in the city are being encouraged to take up chess seriously and the game has received tremendous boost over the lastfew years. A few youngsters from Bangalore have made an impact in the recent Under-nine National Championship and they could go on to become players of repute in the near future.

M. Satvik is the younger son of a doctor couple from the city. He started playing chess when he was four-and-a-half years old with his brother, M. Suraj who has played competition-level chess. Suraj taught Satvik the basics and Satvik made rapid progress. He is now being coached by former State Champion Aravind Shastry.

At the age of six, Satvik was ready to participate in tournaments and played his first championship in 2002 at Sirsi. This was a selection event for youngsters to participate in the nationals and he finished eighth.

The first two ranked in the tournament played for the State. In 2004 at Sangli, Satvik played in the under-eight category and won the tournament. After that, his trophy case kept filling with good performances. In 2005, he was placed third in the under-eight, won the under-ten (where he beat Girish Koushik to win the title) and finished fifth in the under-12.

In 2006, Satvik made his first trip abroad where he participated in the Asian Youth Championship at Teheran. He bagged the bronze medal and in that tournament had the measure of Ch Mohineesh and forced a draw with the ultimate champion, Prince Bajaj from Delhi.

Satvik takes the game very seriously with practice for two hours on weekdays and four on weekends. He has become used to travelling abroad having played in Greece at the World Schools’ Championship where he was placed fifth in the individual event and won a gold along with Ivana Furtado,…More