Remembering Rahul Joshi - a chess trainer extraordinaire
Rahul Joshi passed away at the age of 40 years on 24th of April 2020. Based in Nagpur, he was one of the reasons why the city has become a hub of chess in India. When you talk about the biggest talents of Indian chess, two names immediately come to mind - GM Raunak Sadhwani and WIM Divya Deshmukh. Both of them had Rahul as their initial trainers. His untimely death is a big blow to Indian chess. In this article, CM Vinod Bhagwat, a close friend, relives some of the memorable moments from Rahul's short but highly effective chess training career.
Rahul Joshi – A chess trainer to be remembered forever
By CM Vinod Bhagwat
On 24th April, 2020, Maharashtra chess circuit was shocked by the untimely death of Rahul Joshi, a trainer, who strongly guided many successful young chess players of Maharashtra (in their initial chess journey) including GM Raunak Sadhwani, WIM Divya Deshmukh, Tanisha Boramanikar, Vaibhav Raut and many others.
After spending his initial years in Marathwada region, Rahul shifted to Nagpur around 2009-10. When he was in Marathwada, Rahul organised many good chess tournaments including state level, district level events. But his real journey started as soon as he shifted to Nagpur, where he commenced Anand Chess Academy to train young children. Rahul’s dedication in training the kids, his affinity and emotional attachment, caring nature towards children was exemplary. This has resulted in the emergence of many young National/International Champions from Nagpur and Maharashtra. In fact, teaching young kids is really a herculean task but Rahul was in his element among young kids and children felt very comfortable with Rahul around them. In fact some of the kids would spend an entire day at his academy without getting bored. Rahul often went beyond his role of just a trainer and also made sure that the kids ate food and received the nourishment while training intensively in his classes.
He accompanied his students many times for national/international events. Two incidences are worth sharing. In 2011-12, Rahul went with Divya Deshmukh for her National Under 7 Girls Championship at Pudducherry. Though this was her first major event, Rahul made it very easy for her and played the crucial role where Divya became the Champion and was selected for subsequent international events. Divya’s hard working skill was rightly used by Rahul, thus beginning the career of a talent who might well become one of the best players that India has seen in women's chess.
In 2014, Raunak Sadhwani was playing in National under 9 championship at Pudducherry. After four rounds of play, Raunak was not performing up to the mark. Many talents like Praggnanandhaa, Leon Mendonca were in the fray. But Rahul prepared Raunak in such a way that he emerged on top against Praggnanandhaa with the black pieces and won the under-9 National Boys Chess Championship. This was an important breakthrough for Raunak on his way to becoming one of the best players of the country.
Editor: We contacted Raunak for his game against Praggnanandhaa. He sent it to us with the words, "Credit of this game definitely goes to Rahul sir. He made me ready psychologically to win this game."
Rahul was also awarded the title of FIDE Instructor by FIDE in 2014. He was also a rated player with the highest Elo rating of 1925. Sicilian Kan, Noteboom and Morra Gambit are some of opening specialties of Rahul which have been used by his students many times with great success. He was very proficient in collecting latest chess information and sharing his knowledge among his pupils.
Nagpur, Maharashtra and Indian chess has lost a great chess trainer. But his legacy will live on through his students.
About the author
Vinod Bhagwat is a Candidate Master, chess player and trainer, from Maharashtra. He is a strong chess player with his highest Elo being 2271.
Some messages by Rahul's friends
On the day Rahul passed away, we made a post on ChessBase India's Facebook page and we received over 200 comments. We produce some of the comments here from people who knew Rahul well.
Oh my God He was a really nice person and Coach. Its really a big loss of our chess. May his soul rest in peace 🙏 💔 miss you Bhai - Sunil Soni
Rahul Sir was a great coach .....Teaches for 6 hours......Because he love kids to excel in chess...Very disciplined, theoreticall and perfectionist coach is lost.....We must follow what he has done is the only way to fulfill his dream.....
God Bless Him... Rest in Peace... || Om Shanti Om || - Chandan Mahajan
Rahul sir was highly dedicated chess coach. I observed him while training young players, especially kids, he was brilliant. My deepest condolences to his family, friends and students. - Nandan Warnekar
We will always remember Rahul for his immense contribution for development of Chess. We share the grief of his bereaved family and pray the God to give eternal peace to the departed soul.- Pundalik Nayak
He was my very close Friend...Its unbelievable for me that he is no more ...Since 2001 I known him ...he devoted his life to chess ....when he was in Jalna City he was Developing chess and we (Me Satish Thakur, Vijay Ginodiya , Amrish Joshi, Pushkar Vaidya, Vilis Pawar) use to play Blitz .... really missing him a lot ...May God give his family the strength to bear loss...Om Shanti Shanti... - Satish Thakur
We used to talk on phone , he used to clear many doubts and also used to discuss many other matters apart from Chess . It's shocking . - Sandeep Yati
I played against him in Jalgaon in 2011. He was humble and kind. - Priyadarshan Banjan
Related:
The man who nurtured two prodigious talents from Nagpur
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