Meeting Anand was a fabulous experience: Kush Bhagat’s mother Shilpa

The day after chess sensation Kush Bhagat created a flutter, we explored what made Kush take up chess and has been improving in leaps and bounds. The seven-year-old’s mother Shilpa talked about her son, the chess prodigy, and gave insight into the life of the young champion from Mumbai.
Kush, is a Candidate Master (CM) and has already managed to win an impressive triple gold at the First Western Youth Chess Championship 2016 in Al Ain Chess Club, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Kush was only three and a half years old when he along with his younger twin sisters and some friends used to practice chess over at their house under then coach mr.Patel. It was from here that his love for the game initiated.

"Kush along with his younger twin sisters and some friends used to practice chess over at our place under a coach, he loved it." said Shilpa Kush.

Young Kush at the tender age of 7 has already played a game of chess against Grand Master, Viswanathan Anand and met him twice.
"Meeting Viswanathan Anand was a fabulous experience for Kush. After the game they sat down and discussed about their game." said his mother.

Even though Anand is one chess master young Kush looks up to, it is the Norwegian Grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen who he really idolises. Carlsen too shot to fame at a young age when he earned his Grandmaster title at the age of 13.

"Kush is quite fond of Viswanathan Anand but his role model is Magnus Carlsen. Kush is very aggressive with his style of play and his approach is quite similar to that of Magnus" she said.
When asked about whether the sport was affecting his academics, his mother remarked "No, not as of now. Kush is quite a bright child and it really does not take him much time to pick up anything."
According to his mother, the Class II student of Hill Spring School has the full backing of his school when it comes to chess.
"He studies in an International School and they are very co-operative, even when he is away for tournaments they mail us his homework and everything."
Kush met his current coach, Mr Balaji when he was at Taiwan for the U-5 chess championship. Kush managed to bag a silver medal at the tournament but it was becoming extremely difficult for his previous coach to travel with him to all the touranments as he had several other students under him. This prompted Mr Balaji to take Kush under his wing in the South Mumbai Chess Academy (SMCA).

"Joining SMCA has really helped Kush quite a lot as Balaji sir mentors him and accompanies him to the tournament but even if he is not available someone else from the academy does. They all work together as a team." she said.

Kush's mother too accompanies him to every tournament and gives the young mastermind all the support and assistance he needs.

When asked about his training regime, Kush's mother said that he usually trains around 2 hours on weekdays and puts in upto 6 hours of practice on the weekends.