From No Chess Culture to 20 Rated Players
Sandip Upadhyay is a government teacher at Ratusinh na Muvada Government School in Mahisagar District, Gujarat. He started teaching chess to his students after the pandemic struck in 2020. Seems like a simple enough idea, right? But what's worth noting is Sandip's dedication and prudence, as he makes special efforts to learn chess alongside his students. He is an unrated player, yet he has mentored about 20 titled players! He has translated chess books from English to Gujarati to make them more accessible for his students. He invested his own money in buying chess books, printing puzzles, and providing chess sets for the students.
Chessbase India also organized a camp at his School in 2025, where we got a front-row seat to his incredible work.
What Inspired Sandip
Sandip has been a government teacher for about 26 years. Earlier, he believed he could teach his students textbook knowledge, and it would be enough for their minds to progress. But after he read a book, his entire perspective changed. In 2018, he read a book called 'You Can Win' by Shiv Khera. After reading that book, he thought that mere textbook lessons were not enough to improve the lives of his students. He began telling his students about the purpose behind everything that they did. He emphasised the importance of having a why behind everything in life.
“Our thoughts are causes. You sow a thought, you reap an action. You sow an action, you reap a habit. You sow a habit, you reap a character. You sow a character, you reap a destiny," a popular quote from the book that supports this idea.
What learning technique does he use?
Sandip has been using a special method to teach his students. He has used his own language-learning method for nearly 20 years, in which children learn through actions rather than simply memorising words. The teacher acts, and the children learn to associate that action with its corresponding word or sentence, which they are then able to read and write. According to the teacher, this approach helps children learn to read their mother tongue quickly. The school also introduces English from Balvatika, before Class 1, so that children can read chess books and learn chess notation, while also teaching Vedic mathematics.
What It Does For Students
Sandip mentions that most of his students belong to the families of labourers. They are not that familiar with chess beforehand. Their resources are limited. But they have incredible faith in Sandip. They trust him, and they believe that he truly wants what's best for them. Under Sandip’s guidance, 14 of his students have secured scholarships through the District-Level Sports School (DLSS) programme. The scheme supports talented young sportspersons by providing them with free education, accommodation, meals and sports training from Classes 8 to 12. For Sandip’s students, this has opened up an opportunity to continue their education while receiving structured chess training without the financial burden on their families.
For a child from a family of labourers, an education scholarship can be far more than financial assistance; it can remove one of the biggest barriers between the child and opportunities that their family may never have been able to afford.
Meet 20-rated players from this school
Divya Chauhan
Divya is described as highly intelligent and hardworking, and has won the most medals and trophies among the girls trained by the school. She finished third in an Open Women’s Chess Tournament at Children’s Research University. She later represented Gujarat at a tournament in Raipur. One interesting fact about her is that she can recite the entire Ding–Gukesh World Championship final game from memory. She dreams of becoming a Grandmaster and has also recorded numerous district-level Khel Mahakumbh and SGFI victories.
Yashvi Chauhan
Yashvi is known for her hard work and regularly competes at district-level, finishing among the top three. Besides chess, she helps with household and farm work and performs well academically.
Neha Chauhan
Neha was honoured by the Mahisagar district administration and became the first female-rated player from the district to achieve its highest rating. She was selected through a Gujarat State Chess Association open tournament and represented Gujarat at an event in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Two of the four women sent from Gujarat, Neha and Divya, were from their school.
Bhumi Chauhan
Bhumi is one of the hardest-working players in the group. When she first started learning chess, some of the other students teased her. Instead of being discouraged, she worked harder and took the initiative to improve. She regularly solved chess puzzles and kept working on her game, eventually becoming a rated player. Her father is a farmer and often travels to other villages for work. Bhumi would accompany him during her holidays, but Sandip encouraged her to focus more seriously on chess. Since then, she has made remarkable progress and continues to grow as a player.
Rohit Chauhan
Rohit is considered one of the village’s top five players and is described as highly hardworking. He dreams of becoming a Grandmaster. Rohit and his brother Harshad come from a financially weak family. Rohit studies at DLSS Urmi School, Vadodara.
Parth Chauhan
Parth is an attacking player with good tactical ability and is one of the school’s five main players. All four brothers in his family are good chess players and were selected to study at DLSS Urmi School, Vadodara.
Rahul Chauhan
Rahul is considered one of the village’s top five players. At a Mahisagar district tournament in Lunawada, he defeated long-time local champion Anil Pandya in the final to become champion, bringing recognition to his school. He is currently probably the group’s highest-rated rapid player, with a rating above 1600.
Jaypal Chauhan
Jaypal is a quiet, serious and strong player whose father is a JCB driver. He is one of four brothers from the same family who were selected to study in Vadodara and currently attends the DLSS school there.
Aashik Chauhan
A quiet and thoughtful player, Aashik is known for carefully considering his moves and rarely rushing under pressure. He is considered as one of the most reliable players and the most thoughtful among the five strongest students. He currently studies at DLSS Urmi School, Vadodara.
Yashpal Chauhan
Yashpal became the youngest student from the school to pass the DLSS competition. Initially reluctant to stay in Vadodara, he was encouraged to stay on and inspire younger children from the village. He eventually chose to stay and now trains there happily. His younger sister is also developing as a chess player, and their father learned chess himself so that he could teach her.
Jaydeep Chauhan
Jaydeep’s father initially opposed his chess and would warn him that another tournament loss could mean he would not be sent again. Jaydeep nevertheless completed the Woodpecker book twice and improved considerably. His DLSS selection changed his father’s attitude because chess also gave him an opportunity to study up to Class 12 at a prestigious Vadodara school. His father, a farm and construction labourer, was extremely happy about his admission.
Rahul Chauhan
Rahul was selected in the first batch from the school under the DLSS scheme and now studies in Vadodara. His sister Hetal is also a good player, though she does not yet have a FIDE rating because they have played very few rated tournaments.
Ashwin Chauhan
Described as the school’s “powerhouse”, Ashwin was the first student to learn chess when the school introduced it. His Chess.com rating is around 2200. At a five-day FIDE-rated classical tournament at Karnavati Club, Ahmedabad, with 500+ players, he finished fourth in the Under-1600 category after one loss and one draw. He is also described as the school’s most successful district-level Khel Mahakumbh player over the last four years, progressing to the state level.
Nitin Chauhan
Nitin missed DLSS selection the first year while his friends were selected. Encouraged to work harder, he did so and was selected the following year through the DLSS Prodigy Talent Test.
Ram Chauhan
Ram taught himself chess traps by watching games on his mobile phone. He would then surprise other players by successfully using those traps against them in their games. His teacher saw this as a sign of his natural curiosity and willingness to learn independently.
Kaushik Chauhan
He has been selected for DLSS for the past two years. Right now, he is studying and training in Vadodara. He has been an extraordinary player from the start. His little sister, who is in 8th standard, is also a very good player. She recently came 5th in the Khel Mahakumbh in all of Gujarat. Both the siblings are great players.
Om Patel
Om hails from a nearby village, Sakriya. He travels daily from there to Sandip's School. He started playing chess at age 5 when his father came to know that chess was being taught in school. Recently, he achieved a FIDE rating. He is extremely hard-working. His brother also attends the same school, and he is also a very good player. Om recently won a district-level chess tournament.
Sunil Chauhan
Sunil was among 14 boys from their school selected from 33 players across Gujarat under the DLSS scheme. He initially returned home after a week but was persuaded by his teacher to return to Vadodara and become an inspiration for children from the village. He has now been studying there happily for two years.
Harshad Chauhan
A talented and hardworking player, Harshad finished second in his zone at a Children’s Research University tournament in Ahmedabad with 500+ participants from Gujarat. He currently studies at Urmi School, Vadodara.
Nihit Patel
Nihit is described as one of the hardest-working students in chess. He began playing seriously in Class 5 and has worked extremely hard since then. His father, Ashwin Patel, is a teacher at the school who also helps translate chess books.
The Financial Aspect of It All
To give his students better exposure and help them understand the world of competitive chess, Sandip arranges for them to participate in tournaments. He also spends around Rs. 15,000–20,000 or more every month from his own salary towards their education and chess-related expenses.
However, taking a large number of students to out-of-state tournaments is expensive. They often have to arrange private vehicles for travel, along with food and accommodation for the students. To help fund these tournaments, Sandip, along with his colleagues, has started a charitable trust.
“We ask everyone we meet to donate just Rs. 100. With their support, we can take our students to bigger tournaments,” he said.
What He Aspires to Do Further
Sandip simply saw that he could make a difference, and he did. He gave his students an avenue to dream bigger. He translates books, learns alongside them, puts in his own resources, and takes them to tournaments, all because he believes that his students deserve better. He gave them opportunities that they may not have had otherwise because he believed in them. That is the brilliance of a great teacher.
Sandip says that he wants to create 10 World Champions and 50 Grandmasters. Further, he wants to build a school for at least 5000 students, where education is free.
Over time, Sandip's work and his belief in his students have also received support from people who wanted to contribute to their growth. Kailash Swaminathan and Rajivji Talvar donated five tablets to the school. They have also sponsored the tournament expenses for students from the school who participated in events between December 2025 and April 2026. Together, they have also contributed Rs. 7 lakh. Apart from that, Ritesh Rochwani from Vadodara contributes Rs. 2,000 every month towards the students' journey.
So far, Rs. 7,10,000 has been raised to support the students and their chess journey. These contributions have helped Sandip provide his students with resources and opportunities that go beyond the classroom.
“The true teacher is he who can immediately come down to the level of the student and transfer his soul to the student.” — Swami Vivekananda
If you want to support this initiative, you can contact Sandip Upadhyay at +91 99042 10102 or on his Facebook page.
Important links
How Sandip Upadhyay is creating chess champions in rural Gujarat
