Coach Ramachandran Ramesh spoke about achieving goals in chess in an interview with Chess with Mustreader. Ramesh says that most chess players are unhappy with their results. Ramachandran notes that very few Grandmasters are truly happy.

Ramachandran Ramesh

Ramachandran Ramesh

Indian GM, Coach

“I’ve learned so many good things from chess. Both as a player and as a coach. And I’ve seen a human mind evolve for the better and become happy.

Playing chess should make us happy. It is not a journey that should be stressful. Because whenever I look at most chess players, they are always stressed. Because they are unhappy. Most chess players are kind of unhappy with their results, even 2650 plus grandmasters.

Maybe 1900 or an amateur would think all the grandmasters are happy. I work with so many grandmasters and only very, very few happy grandmasters I have seen. They all have the feeling of disappointment and regrets: “I have not become a great player that I hoped I would become”. This regret most players have. And that is really sad.

And that is why I keep telling everyone, if you’re not going to commit yourself for a few years in your life and dedicate yourself completely in this journey, then what they are going to do is they’re going to play video games, have a good social life and so on along the way. And after, when they are 25 or 30 years old, they’re just going to have a lot of regrets and be unhappy.

You just have to see these people who have dedicated themselves and became successful. They’re just extremely happy human beings. I think this is something everyone has to think about very hard.”

Indian GM Ramachandran Ramesh is widely recognized as one of India’s most successful chess coaches. He is the founder of the Indian Chess Gurukul academy. Ramesh trained Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa R, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Aravindh Chithambaram VR., Pranesh M, and others at this academy.