How much does it cost for one to become a chess Grandmaster? | Chess News
Mrinal Ghosh does some quick mental math before he arrives at a jaw-dropping estimate: his family has spent about Rs 46 lakh over the past decade and a half to sustain his son Aronyak’s chess career. Just to make him a grandmaster. Then he drops the real headline statement that Rs 46 lakh is probably the least anyone in India has spent in the pursuit of becoming a GM. For a middle-class family in Kolkata, raising even this amount has meant sacrifices. Of Mrinal’s ancestral property. Of his wife Sanchita’s wedding jewellery. And Aronyak’s own prize money won at events, every penny of which is invested back into his career. All of those sacrifices finally saw Aronyak become India’s 95th grandmaster earlier this week. There is a misconception that chess is a cheap sport. No expensive equipment or accoutrements needed, after all. No need to employ sports science teams either. No need to book stadiums or courts to train in. But Aronyak’s rise to grandmaster status has shone a light like never before on the …
