At Chennai Grand Masters, a chance for Harika Dronavalli to give her 2-year-old daughter a peek into her life

Indian Express

2 days ago

Two days before the Chennai Grand Masters event began, Harika Dronavalli arrived at the playing venue to get a feel of it and brought with her, two-year-old daughter Hanvika. Inside the playing hall, her instincts took over as she made her daughter sit in her chair and recorded a video of her moving pieces. 'That felt good, it's been like 25 years since I started playing chess internationally. It's a nice feeling that my daughter is coming and witnessing what I'm doing in my life,' the Indian GM says.
This is the first tournament where Harika has chosen to travel with her daughter. When she won the bronze in the 2022 Chess Olympiad, Harika was pregnant, in her final trimester. Then, when she won gold at the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest, she had left her daughter in the care of her mother, sister, and grandmother for three weeks. It has been her routine when she travels abroad, but with this tournament happening in Chennai, it provided her with a rare luxury, to bring her daughter along as she doesn't need to worry about food and the weather. Even if she had a change of plan, Harika revealed she didn't need to fret too much about it as Hyderabad – where she currently lives – is closer to Chennai.
'I think any mother can relate to this. Guilt happens when you leave your child behind. I would love to have her everywhere. Even now, I don't think it's easy. But this (the tournament in Chennai) is so close to my place. I'm happy she could witness my life in a way,' she says. After a brief pause, she makes it a point to remind Koneru Humpy that winning the silver at the FIDE Women's World Cup recently was no mean achievement. 'With having a kid, family, so many responsibilities, the way she fought was just amazing. This is something that people should really understand, it is much more difficult for Humpy with the circumstances to still be there and be in the final,' 34-year-old Harika says about her fellow veteran.
During overseas tournaments, Humpy has been Harika's most familiar companion for a long time. Though they don't exchange many notes, she speaks about a professional relationship. 'It's a very healthy competition over the years. When we go out of the country and have only two Indians in the tournament, you relate to them more, you understand each other's journeys. Now, being mothers and having a similar path, we understand each other and have a mutual respect and a healthy competition between us. We have had many meals together. But back then, Chess didn't have the limelight that it has right now,' she says.
While the emergence of Divya Deshmukh, R Vaishali has expanded the Indian contingent, Harika prefers to leave the young ones on their own and not bore them. 'I have a very good rapport with Vaishali. After being a mother, the major thing you speak about is your children, so that's not something the youngsters can relate to me with,' she says. Ask her about who she prefers to be a babysitter, she responds quickly. 'Not Arjun (Erigaisi) for sure. I have seen Gukesh in Delhi when I got my daughter to meet the Prime Minister. I was very surprised with the way he handled kids. I genuinely didn't know, so I was very surprised. So I would say Gukesh.'
Speaking of the World Cup, where she lost to Divya in the quarterfinals, Harika says there are no regrets. 'Knockout, it's a format that you can't expect anything. I just tried my best. It all came down to one game, one bad day and I was out,' she says.
With Humpy and Divya sealing their Candidates spot, all eyes are on Harika, who has started the Chennai event with successive losses. After losing to Diptayan Ghosh in the opening round on Thursday, on Friday, she lost to P Iniyan. 'No, no,' she says when asked about pressure to make the Candidates cut. 'I never compare with anyone. It's always about me and how to get better. I want to challenge myself and see where I am standing. I hope I give my best and learn from every tournament. I don't see one tournament as something big. I feel I have to progress gradually in each tournament. So I just concentrate on what I should do best, and I don't take results to heart too much. I am ambitious but I don't think that this is the last tournament of my career to focus on. It's fine, whatever comes my way, I will just try my best,' she says.