Chesss and Sportsmanship qualities

White Knight Chess Academy founder Ashirwad Tupe had an interview Adv. Nira Dhadge on how chess can help in sportsmanship qualities and why it actually important for kids to lose at young age so that they can learn how to handle loss. The video also explains why we see very less women in chess.

Here is the translation of interview in english(0:50 sec)-

Adv. Nira Dhadge(ND)- Namaskar, I Nira Dhadge welcomes you in Podcast with Nira. Today we have with us Ashirwad Tupe. Sir welcome with the program.

Ashirwad Tupe(AT)- Thank you.

ND- Sir please tell us about yourself.

AT- I am Ashirwad Tupe. I am a chess coach. I am founder of White Knight Chess Academy, I founded WKCA in 2019. I am in coaching field for last 8 years. Our USP is that we are experienced in coaching 4-7 year old kids. Since last 4 years we are Pune District champion in a row in girls category. Through academy we are trying to put sportsmanship qualities in kids.

ND- With other sports why do you think is chess important?

AT-Most importantly you can't put 4 year old kid in most of the physical sports our you cant put the kid in competition easily. I am not saying that you should make the kids compete in total seriousness like they have to win. Your target should be giving them the environment of competition. They should face Loss and I am focusing on this word loss because the kid should the habit of overcoming loss. Think like this, if a 4-5 yr old kid is able to handle a loss at this age, will he be afraid of anything in future? Chess is such a game that even a 5 year old can defeat at 50 year old guy. You must have seen many examples online. So this gives kids confidence which is easily doable through chess.

ND- In our conversation before I learnt that There are very less girls in this sports. Any specific reason for it?

AT - If you look at men and women it is not any partiality, it is their way of thinking. Boys think logically. You tell something to them, they will immediately give a solution. Majority of them wont even be emphatic about it. Girls are some what emotional, they will stay in that mindset . Even if there is a solution they may try to find creative way. This is one part. Other thing is boys have bit more fighting spirit. That I want to win at any cost. They get to dominate someone. It becomes a world for them. This is what I have observed in my term of coaching.

ND- How will you motivate the girls in to come in this field?

AT- Before girls, parents have to initiate. If parents bring the girls at early age then their thinking will be different and they will like the game. Like I told before we are 4 time district champion in a row, we are champions in girls category. We are champions because we make them play in open category with the idea of increasing their strength, so other games become easy for them. We are trying to capture girls at very young age and give them good platform and motivation. It is a golden period for Indian chess. We we are trying to bring more kids into chess.

ND - How many people you have in academy?

AT- We have 5 coaches and approx 120 kids offline and online.

ND- How many times offline classes happen?

AT- Normal classes happen twice a week. The kids who are serious also do classes 5 times a week for 2-3 hrs a day .

ND- What is the use of chess in real life?

AT- There is lot of benefit. Lets start with entrepreneurs. Lots of entrepreneurs have came to be who are aggressive, they react fast, so chess helps them become calm. You start looking for options for eg. If you find one good option, it is very important to look for a better one. Chess is going to help with logical thinking and other benefits are there anyways but chess also helps in behaviour changes, which is more important I think.

ND- I have one off the topic question. In lot of english movies, chess is shown very nicely. Like in Harry potter, queen's gambit and many more movies they show chess in a nice. What do you feel? You have been teaching for long time now, what excites you to keep going on?

AT- For me chess is a way to inculcate sportsmanship in 4-5yr old kids easily. Kids cant compete at physical level at such small age. But a small kid can easily play with elder person in chess.And at such a young age kid will get his own world of 64 squares, where whatever you want will happen. The pawns and other pieces will move the way I want, no one else is going to tell you those things. If it is a mistake it is my responsibility, if I win I will win because of me. Thats what I like most about it.

ND- That's nice. So 3-4 year old kids can start playing it and even if thet are 50 yrs they can come to your academy? There is no age bar!

AT- Absolutely.

ND- It felt very good you came and informed about your academy. Very less people know about chess and it is a very nice sport. Mind becomes active because of it and it is going to have very good affect on kids.