Capture the kingdom

Anmol Bajaj

If binge-watching The Queen's Gambit inspired you to unleash the potential chess prodigy in you but your attention span is less than eight seconds, here's the chance you've been looking for. Chandigarh-based Anmol Bajaj, a marketing professional and a chess coach, is holding a series of eight masterclasses that will help enthusiasts to ace the basics of the board game using storytelling. Bajaj, who has been playing chess since he was four and has competed in state-level tournaments without formal coaching, has students who play the game at both state and national levels.

"Anything explained in the form of a story is hard to forget. We may have grown up to forget the formulae we were taught in school, but forgetting the stories that our grandparents narrated seem unlikely. And so, I will try to harness the power of stories to teach attendees all about chess pieces, their movements, common jargon, conditions of winning/drawing/losing and special moves. We will also get into strategies of how to avoid the fastest checkmates and try endgames with one queen/rook, two rooks and two bishops, one pawn and so on," Bajaj shares.

When asked how stories can help decode chess, Bajaj elucidates, "Depending upon the age group, I ask the attendees what their favourite pop-culture series or films are. Say, for example, someone is a fan of The Avengers series, we assign the characters of different chess pieces. The superpowers of each of these pieces are then explained through moves."

At a recent class, he explained the en passant move - a special pawn capture that allows pawns to capture pawns on adjacent tiles under special circumstances, by terming the two pawn pieces involved as long lost friends. When one of them refuses to greet the other and moves past it, the other pawn plots an act of revenge by ambushing and capturing it. "Chess opens a whole new world of possibilities to you. It helps you perceive things differently but improves problem-solving in real life too," he asserts.

On: December 5 to December 25, 5 pm to 6 pm
Email: rtr.anmolbajaj@gmail.com
Log on to: insider.in
Cost: Rs 4,000

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