Nine-year-old Point Cook boy Reyansh Reddy will compete in a world chess championship in Italy later this year, Cade Lucas reports.
Point Cook’s Sasirekha Reddy can recall the moment she knew her youngest son Reyansh was no ordinary boy.
“When he was around four and half one day he came to me and asked how a knight moves on the chess board, ” said Ms Reddy who wasn’t aware that Reyansh even knew what chess was let alone had any interest in it.
“I was surprised and asked him ‘do you know you know the other pieces on the chess board ?’ and he showed me all the other pieces and how they moved. I was shocked.”
Chess was hardly foreign in the Reddy household.
Ms Reddy plays herself and her elder son, Druthin, had recently taken it up too, something Reyansh, unbeknownst to her, had been keeping a close eye on.
Proving he could put theory into practice, in the space of three months Reyansh went from never having played before to easily beating his older brother.
It was rapid progress that only continued when his mother took him to his first competition in 2018.
“Before he turned five took him to a small tournament at the Wyndham chess club and he won four rounds in the under-16 category in the first tournament in his life. We took him to another tournament he played so confidently and he beat more experienced kids. I could see his confidence and joy when he was playing. He was not thinking ‘I’m going to win this game’, he was enjoying it. Even now he just enjoys the game.”
Now Reyansh is nine years old and firmly entrenched as one of global chess’ great young prodigy’s, the type of generational talent that has him bestowed with titles like ‘Candidate Master’ and has people in the chess community referring to him as a ‘superstar’ and ‘Queens Gambit’ after the Netflix show about an orphaned chess prodigy.
They might need to come up with even grander monikers later this year after Reyansh competes at the world age group championships in Italy in November.
In order to help get him there, the Hobsons Bay Chess Club is holding fundraising event on August 6 where Reyansh will play a simultaneous exhibition match or ‘simul’ against multiple players at once.
Far from showing off, simul’s are a popular way for chess masters to demonstrate their skills and for amateur players to gain valuable experience by playing against a higher-level opponent.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for our juniors to challenge themselves and play against our own junior master,” said Hobsons Bay Chess Club instructor Casey Goh of the fundraising event.
Mr Goh has witnessed Reyansh’s ability on chess board up close and said he’s every bit as good as advertised.
“Reyansh started playing in our club when was about five years old and he actually beat me when he was six so that was very impressive,” he said.
“He is very very good. Very, very good.”
November’s world cadet championships in Montisalvano won’t be Reyansh’s first time on the world stage.
Last year he became the first Australian in 35 years to win an Asian age group title when he took out the under-8’s category at a tournament in Bali.
Earlier in 2023 he competed in his first world championships in Batumi, Georgia, finishing 10th.
To register for the exhibition or donate, visit: shorturl.at/W1L8Q
