By Aditya Raj
India no longer needs to prove that it can produce exceptional chess players. Its young grandmasters, international medal winners and rapidly rising competitors have created a generation that sees success in chess as genuinely possible.
Yet July 20, observed globally as International Chess Day, remains far less familiar to the public than the players who represent India. The date commemorates the founding of the International Chess Federation in Paris in 1924. It has been observed by FIDE since 1966 and was formally recognised by the United Nations as World Chess Day in 2019.
That relative lack of awareness reveals an interesting contradiction. India has a chess generation, but a wider chess culture is still taking shape.
A chess generation is visible through champions, tournaments, rankings and medals. A chess culture exists when the game is also present in homes, schools and everyday conversations. It begins when parents who have never played chess themselves feel confident introducing it to their children. It grows when a beginner has somewhere to learn without being expected to immediately compete.
Upstep Academy operates within this gap between national enthusiasm and everyday participation. Its approach is based on the belief that chess cannot become part of childhood if learning remains accessible only to children who already show unusual ability or have access to established coaching networks.
The academy has developed a five-level curriculum through which children progress according to their understanding rather than simply the number of classes completed. Students learn in small batches with full-time coaches, beginning with the logic of the board before moving towards calculation, strategy and competitive preparation.
This structure matters because the first experience of chess often determines whether a child remains interested. The complete game can initially appear intimidating, with unfamiliar rules, notation and a large number of possible decisions. A beginner does not need to understand everything at once. The early objective is to help the child recognise patterns, make independent choices and understand why a move worked or failed.
For Upstep, this also means separating learning from the immediate pressure to win. Some students may eventually pursue ratings and tournaments. Others may continue playing because they enjoy solving positions and thinking through difficult choices. A meaningful chess culture needs room for both.
“India does not lack chess talent or ambition. The larger opportunity is to make the first step into chess clear and welcoming for every child,” says Abhijit Hatkar (Founder, CEO, FIDE Rating 2000+). “Competition becomes valuable when it grows from understanding. Our responsibility as educators is to first help children enjoy thinking, questioning and discovering the game for themselves.”
The growth of online instruction has expanded this possibility. A child no longer needs to live near a recognised chess club or travel regularly to a major city to receive structured coaching. Upstep Academy now teaches students across more than 20 countries, allowing children from different locations to follow the same learning pathway while receiving direct guidance from coaches.
Access, however, is about more than putting lessons on a screen. Young learners require continuity, observation and personal feedback. A coach needs to understand whether a child made a thoughtful decision, followed a pattern or simply guessed. This is why Upstep employs coaches as full-time members of its team and trains them to work within a structured curriculum.
International Chess Day offers an opportunity to bring this conversation beyond competitive chess. FIDE’s 2026 observance encourages people to play in creative, meaningful and unexpected settings. For India, that could mean chess appearing in classrooms, libraries, community spaces and family routines, rather than being encountered only through major tournaments.
The success of Indian players has already given children figures to admire. The next stage is to give more of those children a practical way to begin.
A lasting chess culture will not be measured only by how many champions India produces. It will also be visible in how easily an ordinary child can sit down at a chessboard, understand the possibilities in front of them and feel that the game belongs to them too.
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