Vantika Agrawal is one of the fastest rising stars in Indian chess. She enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2024, winning two gold medals at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.
On Friday, the International Master was honoured with the Arjuna Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements in Chess.
“I feel on top of the world, receiving the Arjuna Award from the president,” said an extremely delighted Vantika, in a conversation with Read. “I think that’s a dream come true for me. It means a lot to me.
“Playing for your nation, winning medals, and when the government recognizes your efforts, you feel even more motivated to work harder and win many more medals for India in the upcoming years,” she added.
‘Started winning and never looked back’
There is a distinct style in which Vantika has gone about her chess career. Having started at the young age of seven, she was fasnicated with the idea of pieces moving on 64 square and soon made it her own.
“The very first tournament I played, I won a prize there,” she recalled. “And after that, I kept on winning and never looked back.
“I won State, National, Asian, World, Commonwealth, and Olympiad,” she added.
After initially being trained by coaches in the country, Vantika soon roped in international coaches to hone her skills further and that helped her level up in the sport.
Torchbearers of chess
At 22, Vantika forms the core of young Indian chess players leaving a mark in the world of chess, along with the likes of Gukesh Dommaraju, Vaishali Rameshbabu, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.
She, in fact, believes that the pandemic delayed the emergence of India as a global chess powerhouse.
“Maybe we would have seen a world champion even faster if there was no pandemic,” she said. “I think it delayed things and then it took the youngsters some time to come and increase their rating.”
The double gold at the 2024 Chess Olympiad remains the highlight of Vantika’s career. She and the other members of the Indian contingent were aware of the pressure but they did not let it dictate their game, rather used it as a fuel to perform better.
“It (Chess Olympiad 2024) was an amazing experience,” said Vantika. “When we went there, we were the top seeds and everyone was kind of expecting that we should win a medal and not just any medal, but gold medal.
“And that put a lot of pressure on us. We just wanted to give our best and just play our games and not think about that,” she added.
Growth of women’s chess in India
2024 was also a year that saw massive growth in the Indian women’s chess circuit, with players starting to stand out and win accolades for the country.
This serves as a huge boost to the next generation of women and Vantika is sure of chess becoming a career option for the young girls in the country.
“Now more and more female players are going to take up chess, pursue it as a career. I think we are going to see a lot of talented young girls taking up chess and performing really well in the future,” she opined.
When asked about the recent buzz around Vaishali’s comments about the WGM title, Vantika too weighed in on the issue, terming it an ‘interesting’ decision.
“I do get her point because we have these titles, so the woman players aim for the Woman International Master title or WGM title. And once they achieve that they are pretty much satisfied,” she said before adding, “Let’s say if these titles did not exist then maybe they’ll aim higher (for a Grandmaster title).”
Vantika, though, is not satisfied and her aim is higher than where she is currently at, setting her eyes on the Grandmaster title.
“I have WGM and IM (International Master) title, but I want to go for the Grandmaster title and enter the top ten women players in the world,” she concluded.
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