What do Indian Chess Prodigies Eat for Breakfast?
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 20 Aug, 2025

Culture and history appear to play a role in their remarkable success at the most cerebral of games, but probably not their dietary habits.

Last week, a ten year-old girl made history by defeating a sixty year-old Grandmaster. Earlier this week, a twenty year old shocked a nineteen year old to be ranked in the top three. All three of these kids are Indian. 

It’s fair to say that I too was a pretty accomplished ten year-old.   Not only did I know how to walk on my hands, but I owned over 100 Beanie Babies, and that’s not even counting the special McDonald’s ones you could only get with a Happy Meal. 

Bodhana Sivanandan of the UK is also an accomplished ten year-old.  Last week, she defeated a grandmaster in chess, making her the youngest woman to ever do so.

Bodhana Sivanandan, age 10, made history by defeating a Grandmaster

Given that I have no insights into the size of her Beanie Baby collection or hand-walking abilities, it would be unfair to compare the two of us.  Let’s just say we’re both accomplished in our own right and leave it at that.

A more apples to apples comparison, however, might be between Sivandanan and some of her young chess contemporaries.

Bodhana Sivanandan

Sivandanan started playing at age five when her father bought a chess set in search of a way to keep her occupied during the 2020 COVID lockdown.  

According to her dad, he didn’t necessarily expect her to play the game as much as, say, admire the pieces and hopefully not put them in her mouth.

But just fifteen months after learning chess, she was competing in tournaments.  And not long after that, she was winning. 

And last week, she defeated 60 year-old English chess champion Peter Wells, who earned the title of Grandmaster in 1994, twenty-six years before Sivandanan was born.  

A feat like Sivandanan’s is, of course, shocking. 

Also shocking is that this is not the only recent story about a young Indian’s upset chess victory. 

Gukesh (left), age 19, defeated #1 ranked Magnus Carlson (right)

Gukesh

In June nineteen year-old grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju, known simply as Gukesh,  stunned the chess world when he defeated Magnus Carlson, the number one ranked chess player in the world. 

Gukesh is currently the reigning champion, though Carlson refuses to compete in the championship so many saw this one as a true test of who is currently the best

While Sivanandan first started playing chess at age five, Gukesh, a late bloomer, didn’t start playing until the ripe age of seven. By age twelve, he had become the second youngest grandmaster in history. 

By claiming the title of undisputed chess champion last year at age eighteen, he became the youngest to ever do so.

World champion Gukesh (left) fell to Pragg (right), age 20, earlier this week.

Pragg

But Gukesh, known for shocking the chess world, was himself left stunned by a loss to twenty year-old R. Praggnanandhaa, known as Pragg at the 2025 Sinquefield World Cup in St. Louis just two days ago.

Pragg’s first round win allowed him to leapfrog Gukesh and become the third-ranked player in the world.

Pragg became a grandmaster at age twelve, making him the sixth youngest player to ever earn the title. 

Like Sivanandan, he first began playing chess at age five and quickly began winning tournaments. 

His older sister Vishali, age twenty-four, is a grandmaster as well which makes them the only brother and sister to both hold the title.  At age twelve, Vishali defeated Magnus Carlson, who is ten years her senior. 

A Common Theme

One looking at photos of these players may notice some similarities between these kids. Such as, say, their ethnicity. Or the fact that Sivanandan, Gukesh, and Pragg all compete with a mark on their foreheads; a small powdery streak.

This is called a vibhuti, a symbol of their Hindu faith. It’s often administered to someone by a parent or loved as a blessing before a major moment or an event .

As Gukesh explained in a recent podcast interview, it’s also a  reminder to stay humble. 

“It's basically ash. We come from ash and return to it, so there's nothing to be arrogant about,”

Compare this to, say, the number of football or baseball players that wear a cross, and there’s nothing unordinary about it, though it’s an interesting reminder about the ways in which certain groups tend to dominate certain games or sports.

In the case of chess, the “group” appears to be Indians. 

One might immediately wonder what they’re feeding these Indian kids that turns them into chess prodigies. 

But while Gukesh, Pragg, and Vishali, are all from Tamil Nadu, India’s southernmost state, Sivanandan is from the UK. And I do have my doubts that the half-cooked bacon and unseasoned eggs in an English breakfast are responsible for her success.

A better question might be, more directly: Is there something that makes Indians good at chess?

Indian Origins

The earliest form of chess was invented in India in about Seven AD.  

While other regions like Europe and the Middle East can claim credit for different aspects of its evolution, it makes sense that Indians would have a particular affinity for the game.

Kind of like how baseball’s “World” Series is so seldom held in a country other than the one that invented the sport.

Affordability

In many respects, chess transcends class dynamics and puts all participants on a level playing field.  Just think of the unhoused chess savants that play in New York City parks. 

Chess, unlike many sports, does not require equipment or a place to play, which add up financially.  Rather, it requires a checkered board and game pieces which can even be makeshift if needed. 

Mira Nair’s 2015 Disney film “The Queen of Katwe,” for example, told the true story of a Ugandan chess prodigy who learned to play on a board drawn in the dirt with bottle caps used as the pieces. 

In a country like India that struggles with poverty, anyone can theoretically compete and rise to the ranks.

Viswanathan Anand

Every so often, a transformative figure comes along who inspires an entire generation of others to pursue the same field.  

I’m talking about the Williams sisters’ influence on Black women taking up tennis. Or Eminem’s responsibility for White men thinking they can rap.

When it comes to Indians playing chess, that figure is arguably Viswanathan Anand, who started playing chess at age six and began winning tournaments in his early teens. 

In 1988 he became the first Indian grandmaster in history, 

In addition to countless victories, he was the undisputed world champion from 2007 to 2013.

Viswanathan Anand’s influence on chess is likely hard to quantify, but players like Gukesh and Pragg have openly stated that he inspired them to take up the game. 

For the Culture

And chess is about many of the skills that Indian culture tends to value: Math, strategic thinking, problem solving.  It’s no coincidence that Indians are so prominent in the field of engineering, which also requires these skills. 

Math and science are prevalent in Indian schools from a young age, arguably more so than most in, say, the US.

Obviously, Sivandanan grew up in the UK and was not exactly in high school at age five, so we can’t really say that Indian schools are a result of her success.   

But we can likely say that her father — despite claims that he didn’t actually expect her to play the game when he bought it for her — was still practicing that very culture, which also happens to be one in which parents are often heavily involved in the academics of their children. 

It’s also likely no coincidence that a brother and sister like Pragg and Vishali both happen to be so into chess.  One can’t help but imagine the influence of their own parents.

It also happens to be a far cry from the hockey moms and NASCAR dads we have in the United States.