India’s new 92nd GM, Aaryan Varshney, shared that he managed to achieve this title without the help of professional coaches and without reading a single chess book. Aaryan credited his father and shared a piece of advice on improving chess skills that his father taught him.

Aaryan Varshney

Aaryan Varshney

India's 92nd GM

“I had no coach. I never even read a single book about chess. My father was my only coach. Yes, he’s not a very strong player, he used to play in his college days only, but he guided me so well in every aspect of chess. He decided on the tournaments, like which tournament I have to play or whether I have to go, he analyzed the games with me. He has decided all the things.

His strength doesn’t matter actually because playing and teaching is different, I believe. I mean he is only 1564, but he was guiding me so properly. I mean it was awesome.

The most important advice my father taught me was that he used to keep telling me that practice is the most basic thing you need to do in chess. If you leave chess for even just one day, that is not good for practice. You need to keep playing, you need to keep practicing on a daily basis, whether you are busy or something else. So that’s why I never left chess for even one day. That’s the most important thing I think every player should do.”

20-year-old Aaryan Varshney won the Andranik Margaryan Memorial Tournament in Armenia on January 15. He achieved his final GM norm and became India’s 92nd Grandmaster with this result.