Talent is an important word in sports. It’s used to describe how naturally gifted a player is. The Oxford Primary School Dictionary says that talent is ‘a natural ability to do something well’.
This is a trait that top-level sportspersons in every discipline have. Without a certain amount of it, they will not reach the level where their activities get noticed. Those who represent India are supremely talented. From this vast a population, those who make that cut have to have a fair amount of natural ability. Else, they would be eliminated early in the test for the survival of the fittest.
To make the next jump, however, they need something other than that. To be counted among the best in the world and not just in India, one has to be more than talented. People in the know say that it takes an enormous amount of hard work. In R Vaishali, India’s latest chess sensation, that is what her coaches notice.
Grandmaster RB Ramesh, one of India’s most distinguished coaches, thinks Vaishali was more talented than R Praggnanandhaa, her younger brother, when they started out under his tutelage some 10 years ago. Ramesh is quick to add that the ability to spend hours on chess has taken the siblings to the top and made them eligible challengers against the best. It’s not just talent.
This is what Sandipan Chanda emphasises. He has been working with Vaishali for over two years, through the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy in Chennai. Chanda says talent is a misunderstood word. To excel and not just do well, hard work is the only secret.
“I understand what is meant by talent and I think it does not take you a lot further beyond a certain point,” Chanda told RevSportz. “To reach that level and sustain your position over there, you have to labour a lot. Everybody who made a significant mark in chess did it. Viswanathan Anand’s hard work is as legendary as his exceptional talent. Anatoly Karpov (former world champion) was rated not talented when he was a beginner. At the end of the day, how much of talent for hard work one has is what matters.”
A teen prodigy from Kolkata, who became a Grandmaster at the age of 20 in 2003, Chanda works online and over the board with Vaishali. Ramesh said that he deserved a lot of credit for Vaishali becoming the third Indian woman to secure the Grandmaster title in the open category. She was ranked 41st among women in December 2022. One year on, she is 13th. This rapid rise has coincided with the time she has worked with Chanda.
“Hard work does not necessarily mean a lot of physical exertion,” explained Chanda, who has worked with Anand during several top events. “Improvement is tougher when it concerns an already strong player like Vaishali. She has to be receptive to ideas. Players, especially the good ones, develop their own ways of thinking. But, it’s important to be open-minded. Vaishali has no resistance to new thoughts. She balances her originality with flexibility. This requires a willingness to step out of her comfort zone. That’s the hard work she is doing.”
For Vaishali, the transition from talented to being synonymous with diligence demanded a change in the thought process. This is hard work, not in a strictly physical way. “Vaishali should play for the enjoyment of it and not think only about how many points are required from how many rounds,” said Chanda. “We delved into the abstract. This freed her up. She found the balance between fulfilling the expectations of a professional player and being someone independent in her thoughts. Accepting this and doing it is the hard work, which supplements talent.”
All sportspersons that excel at the highest level do this. They have talent, but what they have after that sets them apart. Nobody trained harder than Sachin Tendulkar. Anand’s ability to spend hours in the backroom is the stuff of lore. Neeraj Chopra is an epitome of dedication. ‘The more I practise, the luckier I get,’ said Gary Player, the South African golf stalwart. Vaishali’s story, too, is more about what has been added to her talent. The more she uses it, the better she will become.