🎤 Aarav Sarbalia: Talent, Balance, and the Story Behind the Rise

"So it's actually a funny story. I was around six and a half, and my parents had put me in a gymnastics class. There was this chess poster on the wall there, and I just got curious about it. Then COVID happened, lockdown started, and like a lot of kids I had a lot of time at home. That's when I started playing online, and I just got hooked.

I got my first classical rating in December 2021, and from there things moved pretty fast. Lots of tournaments, lots of studying, lots of travel. By July 2024, I became a FIDE Master, so roughly two and a half years from my first rating to FM. Now I'm training under GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly sir, and the goal is simple. I want to become World Champion. Everything I do is pointed towards that."

"Classical, for sure. That's where real chess happens. You get time to think properly, calculate properly, and the best player wins. And that's the format where World Championships are decided, so that's where I want to be the best.

But I also play a lot of blitz at home to practice. Because even in classical, you can't always rely on calculation. There are moments where you just have to trust your gut, make quick decisions. Blitz helps build that instinct. So tournaments, classical. Practice at home, blitz. They kind of feed into each other."

"It was a great experience, but the day itself was quite an adventure! I was playing tournaments in Graz and Cannes around the same time, so I had to travel on the same day, and my first match was in the late evening. It was already a super tiring day, and on top of that, I lost my luggage at the airport. With all the Indian food items in it! That was really discouraging, honestly.

But the opportunity itself was amazing. The level was really strong. Kids from all over the world, everyone well prepared. I'm really thankful to the Chess.com team and especially Rakesh Kulkarni for giving me this opportunity. Anytime you get to compete against strong players on a platform like ChessKid, which so many of us have grown up playing on, it feels pretty special."

"So honestly, the content creation part is mostly my parents' thing. They're the creative brain behind the Instagram page. I just show up, and I love to act in those reels and do my part.

The best part is when people start recognizing you at local tournaments. And when parents come up to us saying they learned something from our content. That's a really proud feeling.

I actually don't have a mobile phone, and I keep myself away from social media sites. So I don't really know about the reactions coming on Instagram and all that. But the idea is simple. To tell people about our journey while we're working hard to reach the top, and to explain chess concepts in a fun and easy way and how chess connects to our day to day life."

"Oh yeah! So this was at the Chess Olympiad in Mahabalipuram in 2022. The place was crazy. Huge crowds, everyone wanting to see Magnus. He was coming and going through the back door to avoid all the people.

Later that night, we went to a hotel to meet someone, and we spotted Magnus having dinner at the restaurant with his Norwegian teammates. So me and my dad waited outside the restaurant. For like forty five minutes to an hour. But Magnus just kept eating!

Finally I lost my patience. I grabbed the phone and just walked up to him. But here's the funny part. I realized I didn't actually know how to click a selfie! So Magnus was really kind, he took my phone and clicked it himself. And when I came back outside, I told my dad with a big smile. 'Papa, it's not me who took a selfie with Magnus. It's Magnus who took a selfie with me!'

That's a memory I'm gonna cherish forever."

"I think it's a combination of everything, honestly. The way I'd break it down. About 30% is training with my coaches, 30% is my own practice and self study that I do on my own, and then 40% comes from tournaments. So it's all of these things working together.

I actually picked up this idea from RB Ramesh sir. From one of his interviews. And then me and my parents tried to follow it. And I think it's going pretty well so far.

The part I enjoy the most is working with my coaches. And especially the training games I play with my training partners. Those are really fun because there's no rating pressure, you can try new stuff, experiment with your openings, and just play freely."

"My typical day is pretty much all chess. I wake up around seven, go for some light jogging or cycling, and then a badminton session. My coach GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly sir keeps reminding me about physical health. He keeps telling me that if I want to reach the top, I don't just have to be fit, I need to have an athletic body. To be able to play longer and longer games. So I take that pretty seriously.

Then my chess training starts. One to two hours working with my coaches, and then around three to four hours of self practice covering middlegame, endgame, and preparing some openings for training games. And then I usually have a training game session with one of my training partners. So all in all, it's about seven to eight hours of chess every day.

It's a lot, but I love it. This is what I want to do, so it never feels like too much."

"My favorite chess player, just like most kids, is Magnus Carlsen.

What I like most about his style is his grinding in the endgames. The way he squeezes wins from positions that look completely drawn. It's just incredible. I'm actually reading books on this right now. Magnus's games collection, Virtuoso, and a book by GM David Howell on the same topic. I want to develop that in my own game too."

"There are quite a few games that I really like. Especially my first win against a Grandmaster when I was 11 years old. That was a huge moment for me.

But honestly, I would say my favorite game is yet to come. I'm waiting for that game where I beat a Super GM. That's the one I want to look back on and say, yeah, that's my favorite."

"It's a full time commitment, honestly. There's the travel, the logistics, the early morning flights, the lost luggage. All of that is there. But the real job of a chess parent is not the logistics.

The way I see it, if the coach is the engine pulling the train forward, the parent has to be the person at the back. Making sure we're pushing in the right direction. Keeping them motivated. And most importantly, making sure they never fall.

Aarav's coaches do an incredible job with the chess. Our job as parents is everything around that. Making sure he's emotionally ready before a game. Helping him process a tough loss without it shaking his confidence. Celebrating the wins but keeping him grounded.

And then there's the financial side… chess at this level is expensive. Tournaments, travel, coaching — everything adds up. A good financial support or sponsorship would really help us give him the exposure he deserves."

"This was a very conscious decision. Aarav doesn't have a mobile phone. He doesn't go on Instagram, he doesn't scroll through comments or reels. We want him fully focused on chess and nothing else.

But at the same time, we didn't want to miss the opportunity to share our journey. So we handle everything ourselves — ideas, scripting, posting. Aarav just shows up and enjoys acting in the reels. Once the camera is off, he's back to chess.

The goal is not to go viral. It's to document the journey honestly and make chess relatable.

When parents come to us saying they started teaching their kids chess because of our content… that makes everything worth it."