How Vantika Agarwal went from slow starter to Olympiad star performer
Playing on the fourth board for India at the Chess Olympiad, Vantika Agrawal was crucial in her games for the women’s team to win the gold medal – a historic feat where they matched the men’s team gold and became only the third team ever to achieve the joint triumph.
In Budapest, Vantika would often find herself in pressure situations. The Indian team chose to field R Vaishali for seven games on black – a tough schedule to carry out in a tournament of this magnitude on the second board. And when Vaishali was losing those games, Vantika would have to pull through. But then Vantika too went through a bad patch against Poland.
“When I lost my match against my Polish opponent, I was really heartbroken. I take losses very hard and if you saw that game, I was completely winning. On a normal day, if I were in that position, I would win 10 out of 10 times. But then the next day the team needed a draw against the USA and I won my match,” Vantika told the Indian Express. “There was an age gap but we all had great conversations and connected well with each other. If someone lost a game, everyone motivated that person and told them that if today wasn’t a good day, tomorrow would be better.”
In a nail-biting Round 8 of the #ChessOlympiad, 🇵🇱 Poland pulled off a stunning upset, handing 🇮🇳 India their first defeat with a 2.5-1.5 scoreline.
The pressure was on Vantika Agrawal, who found herself in a must-win position. Her game against 🇵🇱 Alicja Śliwicka started… pic.twitter.com/2oBKiZ38tq
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 19, 2024
The 21-year-old, who recently passed out of Shri Ram College of Commerce in New Delhi, did not start chess at a very early age. Usually the ‘prodigies’ start young and when Vantika’s mother took her to a Delhi State tournament for the first time ever, she was shocked at the ages of children playing chess over there.
“Actually, I took them to the Delhi State Championship. Vantika was seven and a half, and Vishesh (her brother) was ten and a half. I saw kids as young as three or four, and they were already good at chess. I only knew Vishwanathan Anand. Up until then, I thought maybe only adults played,” says Sangeeta Agrawal, a chartered accountant, who now travels full-time with her daughter for tournaments.
At the time though, Sangeeta believed her son was the brighter of the two children. There would be light jokes that would be made at the family table.
“When my son and Vantika were growing up, I felt my son was super intelligent. He had some other level of intelligence and memory. And we used to jokingly call Vantika ‘buddhu.’ But she stayed motivated,” Sangeeta recalled.
India’s Vantika Agrawal contemplates her next move in round 11 of the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. (PHOTO: FIDE/Michal Walusza)
While initially, Vantika didn’t get results at tournaments she continued to be interested in chess and ploughed on. In one of the next tournaments that she took part in, this time with a coach behind her, things started to look up.
Sangeeta remembered how she would get messages throughout the day from the coach. 1.0 points became 2.0 and the numbers kept creeping up until she had to go to her daughter’s tournament the next day. Once over there, parents of other children started to congratulate her and called Vantika a prodigy.
At that time, she started playing with 13-year-olds instead of her age group. Soon a 1200-rated player started beating 1600-rated players in the open category. But her ratings would fluctuate often. A pattern was emerging where Vantika would win multiple matches but somehow would miss out on the gold medals. At the Asian Juniors, she missed out on gold in a tie-breaker. Then in another event, she lost the gold medal position because she was up on points but the tournament was based on total wins. In 2019, she had as many as six silver medals.
When the pandemic happened in 2020 and sports came to a halt globally, chess bucked the trend and rose in popularity. Players transitioned to streamers and suddenly a sport that has been around for over 1500 years had a new lease of life. After the pandemic subsided, over-the-board chess returned with a vengeance. Vantika would play 28 tournaments from 2022 to the Chess Olympiad in 2024, according to her mother. This was also the time where she was completing her degree at Delhi University and exams and preparations needed to be taken care off as well.
“During her sixth-semester exams, she was also participating in Tata Steel Chess. We knew she would miss one exam but if she missed two, she would have to repeat that semester. So I told her I would make her study on the bus and on the way back. Later before the exam, I told her to write whatever (it was for a Digital Marketing credit) and she managed to pass that exam and then later gave the exam she had missed out on. Like every Delhi kid, she was trying to get 99%,” said Sangeeta.
Now with her degree completed, Vantika has turned completely towards chess. Earlier there would be Korean TV shows and table tennis with her family at their home. But now, those moments away from chess don’t exist. Recently the family was having dinner together in their living room. For a large part of the dinner, Vantika remained silent in her own thoughts. Then out of nowhere, she started speaking about Magnus Carlsen and a match of his that was supposed to happen.
As Sangeeta put it, “Chess is the only topic at home now.”
