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.
After he won the British Championships, one of the commentators said – ‘prince is now king’. “In previous editions, I had stumbled towards the end, so this time around I was quite determined to learn from my past mistakes. “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.”
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. 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. 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.
“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.”
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. 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. Much like any young chess player, Shreyas’ dream is to become world champion. It’s one of his favourite memories.
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.
