Nubairshah Shaikh, an 18-year-old International Master, on the art of playing mind games
Nubairshah Shaikh
In his decade-long chess career, 18-year-old Nubairshah Shaikh has faced several grand masters from across the world. But, earlier this month, when the Thane lad faced opponent Melkumyan Hrant, the Armenian chess wizard at Abu Dhabi, he knew he had met his match. "He's a great player, and was initially leading the game, but then we managed to equalise. It went on for a good six hours," he says.
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It was only in the last leg that Shaikh sensed that Hrant was beginning to lose patience. “Slowly I started outplaying him using the combination of Rook, Knight and the Bishop. I sensed he was getting restless. When nerves take over, mistakes creep in. I’ve made plenty myself,” he tells us. The nervy mind battle resulted in Shaikh surpassing the 2,400 FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs that governs international chess competition) rating and accomplishing all three IM norms. He has accrued 2,415 ELO (method for calculating the skill levels of players in chess), a rare distinction in the field of chess.
For Shaikh, who studies Civil Engineering at VJTI, chess happened by chance when he was seven. "There was an intra-school competition, and my father suggested I participate, though I had never played the game,” he says. In the two days, Shaikh picked up the basics. Although there were 30 schools participating in the tournament, Shaikh managed to ace it. "And to think, I never even owned a chess board. We bought it after registering for the game," he laughs.
Since then, there has been no looking back. So when he emails us a 'brief' profile of his chess career, it runs into four pages. In 2011, as a 13-year-old, Shaikh became the youngest player to get an IM norm in the country. The player must achieve a tournament performance rating (TPR) of at least 2,600 to qualify.
Shaikh says his greatest role model is, quite naturally, Viswanathan Anand. "Even at 46, he’s competing in world championships and is India's best chess player at 2776 rating points." He feels it’s thanks to Vishy that the country has seen a spurt in the number of grandmasters. "We now have 44 grandmasters, which is great,” he says.
These days, between juggling his engineering assignments and friends, Shakh ensures he puts in six hours of practice every single day. “I don’t get sleep if don’t play," he smiles.
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