Chess Student Spotlight: Sachit Rajkumar

Elite Academy student Sachit Srinivas Rajkumar just tied for first at the Illinois State Championships, and is the Middle School Co-Champion!  It's his second state championship.

The tournament went pretty well for Sachit – he won all seven of his games! To celebrate, we talked to Sachit about his tournament experience, chess favorites, and more.

Sachit and Silver Knights

We’ve had Sachit in our classes and camps for years now, dating back to before his first tournament.  When he first joined the online Academy programs, he started with 10 straight weeks of virtual summer camps! Over the years, Sachit has worked closely with Coach Luke and Grandmaster Johan Hellsten. Here’s what they had to say about his performance at the Illinois State Championship:

“I was incredibly happy to hear about Sachit’s perfect score of 7/7 in the Illinois scholastic championship. Chess rewards those who put in the work, and Sachit has been working hard for a long time. Success well earned!” - Coach Luke

 

"Sachit was one of my first students at Silver Knights, and I'm very happy that he's still joining our Monday sessions. Safe to say, he's a very fast thinker who can come up with unexpected resources no matter if he's attacking or defending. It's my guess that his all-round style, with the ability to adapt to different types of positions, has been of great help within his career so far. If he considers that the endgame favors him, he will go for it no matter if he's in the middle of a promising attacking position." - Coach Johan

Sachit spoke a bit about his favorite topic to study with Coach Johan while talking to SKCA’s Daniel Weissbarth.

DW: What’s your favorite thing you’ve learned from GM Hellsten, or your favorite lesson from him?
SR: Probably some lesson about, like, deep calculation. Sometimes there will be some long calculations that involve a specific topic. It makes you intrigued and want to learn that topic more because you understand it, almost.

Sachit's State Chess Championship Games

DW: Do you want to tell me a little about how the state tournament went?
SR: Yeah. It went pretty well. I went 7/7, but I shared a tie for first place. Unfortunately, I lost on tie breaks.
DW: I saw. That’s kind of bad luck!

Despite the disappointing finish to the weekend, Sachit still played seven exciting rounds and earned victories in each. Watch him analyze his most memorable game in the clip below:

Sachit's Start With Chess

DW: Do you remember how you learned to play chess and how you got started?
SR: Yeah. My old elementary school had an after school program with board games around, and one of them was chess. My friend Josh taught me how to play. I remember one of the things he always said to me was, “Do you want to play real chess or fake chess?”
DW: What was fake chess?
SR: It was like… fake moves, kings can take pieces when they’re checkmated, that kind of stuff.
DW: Fake chess! Do you remember when you got really into it?
SR: I think I watched this video on Chess Talk about the rules and everything, and then in 2019 and during the pandemic, I started playing in online tournaments. I started enjoying chess more when I started playing it more. They had weekly tournaments, so they’d hand out prizes like trophies. I really enjoyed that.
DW: Do you remember your first in-person tournament?
SR: Yeah, it was the Illinois State Championship 2022. I think you’re the one who recommended I play that.
DW: That sounds like the kind of thing I would have done.
SR: I actually did pretty well. I was like 20th, I think? That’s pretty good.
DW: That is pretty good for your first real tournament. Was it exciting?
SR: Yeah, but I did do a touch move thing. But my opponent didn’t see it, so…
DW: Y’know, I feel like having a tough time in your first tournament and making a touch move mistake is pretty standard. Getting away with it is probably a little less common.

Sachit's Chess Favorites

DW: What’s your favorite thing about playing chess?
SR: Probably the variety of positions you can get, and how you have to figure out how to get a winning advantage, how to pressure the opponent, and also when you’re playing and you’re like, “Oh, this is a dead draw,” but then you keep playing and are like, “How’d I somehow win that game?” That feeling just feels good.
DW: Most good chess players are a little bit of both. Who’s your favorite chess player?
SR: Hikaru Nakamura.
DW: Are you gonna root for him at the Candidates Tournament?
SR: Yeah. I want him to play at least one World Championship match.
DW: Y’know, I think he wants that, too. He tried really hard to get there. He played a lot of silly tournaments so he wouldn’t lose a rating point and fall down. I was actually a little sad that none of our students got a chance to play him in those tournaments.
SR: I have a friend who played him.

During a prior guest event, Sachit earned the right to challenge 5x World Champion Magnus Carlsen.  He didn't win:

DW: Do you have a favorite chess book?
SR: I don’t read a lot of chess books. I do more Chessable courses. Right now, I’m doing “Techniques of Positional Play” by GM Peter Heine Nielsen. It taught me a lot of techniques I didn’t know about since I’m also a pretty good positional player.
DW: Cool, I don’t know that one. What’s your favorite opening?
SR: Probably the Italian. It’s just so popular these days, and I also play it.
DW: It’s nice when you play something and you can look at games from the Candidates, and you’re like, “Oh, they’re playing that! I know that line a little bit.”

Sachit Off the Board

DW: What else do you like to do besides chess?
SR: I like to play basketball and football. I also play soccer.
DW: What’s your favorite non-chess book?
SR: I like the “Percy Jackson” books.