"This is the best thing that has happened to us after Aaryan was born!"

Interview with Commonwealth Champion 2017 Swati Ghate

Atul:  First of all, congratulations on your Commonwealth Gold Medal! How does it feel after winning Commonwealth Women’s Championship?

Swati: Thank you very much! Obviously, it was really nice to win. It was after a long time that I achieved this. In few of my previous tournaments, I wasn’t quite able to clinch the title despite leading those tournaments at some point by 1.5 or even 2 points. In the National Championship too, this happened to be the case. I was leading but I lost the thread at some point and missed out on winning the title. But in this tournament, I played consistently well. It was a good performance overall. I am happy with my achievement!

Atul: You played against five GMs and one IM, and won against GM Deepan Chakravarthy. Which was your favourite game from this tournament?  

Swati: Well, my last round’s opponent (Kumar Gaurav) was also good. He is the current National junior champion and although his rating is low - I mean because he lost some rating points recently - his strength is good. And about my favourite game, to be honest, I don't have one. The game against Deepan was good by the result and overall it was a clean finish. But he'd missed a tactic, after which, I was a piece up. Also, he could have sacrificed his queen and defended better. But after missing that tactic, he spent a lot of time and came under time pressure. I think he just felt low after missing that tactic and started playing badly. Before that, the position was more or less equal.

And actually, I couldn't point out any special moment as I didn’t play extraordinarily. It's just that my opponents played badly.  Like in my game against Rishi Sardana, he missed a promising pawn sacrifice I had in the position. Because of this, I was able to build up a strong attack. But even after this, it wasn't really lost for him. He had some tricks in the position and could have played better. So it's not that I played immaculately, I was just consistent.

Atul: As you said, you had missed winning titles despite starting off well in the past. How was your mind set before the last round of this tournament? 

Swati: Actually I was a bit nervous, even though I was playing well. Besides me, Tania and Mary had scored 5.5/8 points. In the 8th round, they had scored wins while I only drew against GM Sahaj Grover, so I was on 5.0/8 points. Okay, it can be argued that I had to face tougher opposition. But the problem was that I had scored less in last 5 rounds. I was on three points after the first three rounds. But after that, I was only able to score 2 points out of my next 5 rounds. So I ended up with 5.0/8 while Tania and Mary were on 5.5/8. It was a risky situation, even Bhakti was on 5.0/8 and had the better tiebreak. I was lucky that both of them drew and I won.

I was nervous, but at the same time, it was a good feeling. Also, their opponents in the last round were much stronger than mine if you go by the rating. But yeah, anything could have happened. My opponent (Kumar Gaurav rated 2014) had beaten a GM in this tournament, so it was not so easy for me either.  I was nervous but I thought, whatever happens, happens. I didn't have much to lose. I had gained a lot of rating points if nothing else. (Swati had increased her rating by 38 points in this tournament)

Atul: So how was the celebration after coming back?

Swati: At home, everyone is very happy, especially my husband. This is the best thing that happened to us after Aaryan was born.  In fact, my office colleagues are also very happy (Swati works as an officer in LIC)! For them, it’s a tremendous thing, you know. They even arranged a felicitation for me. So, it was a good celebration with office colleagues and family.

Atul: Going back to your early days of chess, I would like to ask - How did it all start?

Swati: Basically I am from Sangli. I spent the initial years of my life in that very city. Sangli has had a very good chess culture for many years. They used to conduct tournaments regularly. By seeing these tournaments, I started playing chess. I used to go to Nutan Buddhibal Mandal, founded by Late Shree Bhausaheb Padsalgikar. Also, success came my way very early. I won the U-12 National championship for girls in 1992. It was a huge boost. Coming from a small town like Sangli, to go abroad on your own for playing World Championship was a very big thing! So it all started like that.

Atul: Since you mentioned Bhausaheb Padsalgikar, what role did he play in your chess development? And please tell us about your coach as well.

Swati: Bhausaheb would always motivate me, he was always there by my side. He was the one who suggested me books and even games to go through. And I used to go regularly to Nutan Buddhibal Mandal. Many good players from Sangli used to come there. So I always played with them. After school, I used to go there and play sometimes until 9 or 10 pm.

Bhausaheb also helped me arrange finances for some tournaments. When I was selected for the U-12 world championship, he was the one who arranged finances by finding sponsors for me. That really helped me. He was more of like a mentor to me than a coach.

After my class 10 exam, I moved to Pune. And although I gave my class 12 exam from Sangli, I lived in Pune for playing chess. When I moved to Pune, I started working with IM Arun Vaidya. That's when my real chess education began. He really taught me how to work properly. The city of Pune also gave me the opportunity to attend coaching camps by other strong players – like the camp conducted by GM Vladimirov – and helped me develop my game.

Atul: Let's talk about your personal life. When did you get married? After your marriage, how did your husband support your chess?

Swati: I got married in 2008 to Amit Teli. He has supported me tremendously. It’s a very rare case in India that husbands support their wife in continuing their sports career. In a way, I am lucky that he always motivated me to play chess. After marriage, I felt my progress stagnated at some point. I got WGM title but I was not progressing further. At this point, he was the one who gave me emotional support, and at times, he forced me to go and play tournaments. He took care of our son Aaryan and managed many things at home. Even now, when I play tournaments, he looks after Aaryan. So I don’t need to worry about him and it helps me concentrate on chess while I am away. Even my in laws have always been supportive.

Atul: What is your next goal?

Swati: My next goal is obviously to complete my rating requirements for International Master title. The pursuit of touching 2400 is on. There is a lot of fluctuation in my rating, but it has always been between 2200-2300. My highest was 2385, but that was a long time ago. The thing is, you need to be consistent. The main problem is that I don’t play much abroad. Whenever I play in a foreign country, I choose strong tournaments. In India, the problem is that there are a lot of strong but underrated players. If you lose one game against them, you can just bid goodbye to 10-15 rating points and try to win the rest of your games to cover up that loss. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that I will reach the 2400 rating mark soon (her current live rating is 2316).

Atul: How do you train yourself? Do you work with anyone?  

Swati: Recently, since last 3 or 4 months, I have been working with IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma and that is really helping me. Basically, I am trying to improve my calculation. So what we do is that we take any game or position and try to find the ideas behind the moves. Because of internet and engines, we are habituated to seeing moves without grasping the important things in that particular position or game. That’s what I have experienced with myself and I am trying to change it.

When we solve positions, we try to go into the mindset of that game and think in perspective of any player. We think about what should be done and why it is to be done. If you spend 1 or 1.5 hrs on one particular game or position, you can really learn a lot. You need to remember the concept, not the moves. When you understand that concept you can reapply it in similar positions. This way, you can improve your understanding of the game as well as you calculation!

Atul: Were you studying classical games or any recent games?

Swati: Well, I have been picking up material from many good games. Obviously, classical games are good to study but even recent games are rich in ideas and concepts.  You just need to select good games from any magazine or database. And while going through the game, pause for some time and have a good think about the position and understand why a certain move was played.  

Atul:  What are your favourite books?

Swati: Nowadays I like to study from Aagard’s books, they are good. I like the content. My choice of books has changed with time and I have read a lot of books. 'My Great Predecessors' by Garry Kasparov is among my favourites. Then, 'Think Like a Grandmaster' by Kotov was also one of my favourite books in the past. At one point in my career, I was also very influenced by Dvoretsky’s books.

Atul: Do you use any Chessbase Products?

Swati:  Obviously, ChessBase is like Bible or Gita for chess players. You know you don’t just refer to them once. Time and again you go back to them according to your requirement and learn! Studying games from the database is a compulsory routine for any chess player. It’s like brushing your teeth, you must do it every day!

(Swati is a regular customer of the ChessBase India shop and has bought ChessBase 14 + Mega Database 2017 in order to strengthen her game).  

Atul: Who is your favourite player?  

Swati: Hmm (thinks), I don’t have any favourites, I like the traits. For example, I like Carlsen’s technique, Nakamura's fearless opening choices, Kramnik’s perfection, and about Anand, I will say more than his games I like his personality, he is very cool. Also, I like Kasparov’s aggression, his domination, not only in the game but in general. He has a different aura. He has this distinct personality which I think is unique. I try to take up different qualities from different people!

Atul: You are one of the strongest women players in India and a parent too. So, what will be your advice to woman players in India and their parents?

Swati: Actually, there is no big difference between men and women players. I can tell from experience that women players tend to play more emotionally. We need to play very practically, without fear. The new generation has really improved. Many girls tend to play in women’s tournaments. But apart from those tournaments, they also need to participate in open tournaments. That will surely help them to improve their game. About openings, I will suggest that they should try different patterns and different openings, and not get stuck. This will enable them to explore more and their style will be developed.

For the parents, I will say, I am happy that they are encouraging their girls to play chess and are providing them coaching. That's a good thing, but I will suggest that they should not expect good results very early. Being a parent, I understand that we expect. But in chess, we can’t always expect great results at an early stage.

They should let their children play for the love of chess, without putting any pressure on them. Just play and practice, the results will come at some or other point, it’s just the matter of time.

Atul: Thank you very much for your time and all the best for your next tournaments! It was a pleasure to speak with you!

Swati: You're welcome, and it was a pleasure talking to you too!

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