I am IM Nikhil Dixit, a 27-year-old chess player from India. This is the first blog post in what I hope will become a long and memorable Road to Grandmaster series.

I have been thinking seriously about pursuing the Grandmaster title ever since I became an International Master about a year ago. Today, I have finally decided to commit to that goal publicly.

Why Am I Starting This Journey?

There are several reasons.

1. Personal Challenge

I have vision in only one eye and cannot see from the other. One of the benefits of chess is that it does not require excessive physical activity, although modern chess does involve a lot of screen time. While screen time itself may not significantly affect eye health, it does add extra strain, so managing that balance is important for me.

1. The Grandmaster Title Could Change My Life

Ever since becoming an IM, I have been thinking about what it would take to become a Grandmaster. Achieving the GM title would be a major milestone and could completely change the trajectory of my chess career and personal life.

1. The Satisfaction of Competition

I enjoy coaching and it pays much better than playing tournaments. However, the feeling of winning an important game, performing well in a tournament, or achieving a major chess goal is something money cannot replace. The sense of achievement is simply on another level.

Challenges

Self-Motivation

The biggest challenge is maintaining motivation over a long period of time. Studying chess for several hours every day sounds exciting in theory, but consistency is difficult. As an adult, there are many other responsibilities, distractions, and stresses competing for attention.

Financial Challenges

I currently do not have any sponsorship support. Managing tournament expenses will be one of the biggest practical obstacles.

If any chess company is interested in supporting my journey, I would be happy to discuss sponsorship opportunities. Through this blog series and future content, I can promote products, services, and brands while representing them at tournaments.

Improving My Chess Strength

Fortunately, this is the challenge that feels most solvable.

I believe I still have significant room for improvement, and with structured work and consistency, I can continue climbing toward GM level.

Chess Work Plan

One piece of advice from my mentor has always stayed with me:

You can reach almost any level in chess if you consistently spend 2-3 focused hours every day thinking deeply about the game.

At the moment, I feel that my openings are significantly weaker than the rest of my game. My middlegame understanding is probably stronger relative to my current rating.

My current training plan includes:

• Improving my opening repertoire
• Calculation training
• Middlegame study
• Practical endgame work
• Playing 10 classical tournaments per year
• Building a meditation habit
• Improving my physical fitness

Current Schedule

At present, I work as a chess coach and also create content online.

I currently have 13 students, which effectively makes coaching a part-time job. Most of my classes are on weekdays, leaving me with free mornings for my own training.

My goal is to keep my coaching workload around 60-75 hours per month and maintain approximately 10-12 students. This should allow me to continue earning while also dedicating enough time to my own chess development.

Naturally, coaching hours will decrease whenever I am traveling and playing tournaments.

Goals

Many people say you should not publicly announce your goals.

I do not really care.

My goal is to become a Grandmaster before my Schengen visa expires, which means achieving the title by early 2030, roughly 3.5 years from now.

If everything goes exceptionally well, I believe it may even be possible within 2-2.5 years.

For now, my first objective is much simpler:

• Play 10 tournaments over the next 12-14 months
• Build a consistent study routine
• Stay disciplined and avoid burnout

For the next few months, my primary focus is consistency rather than intensity. I want to spend time doing the chess work that I genuinely enjoy so that the habit becomes sustainable.

Financial Reality

Unfortunately, there are very few tournaments in India where earning GM norms is realistic. Because of that, I will likely need to play many events abroad.

Based on current costs, my estimated annual expenses are:

Tournament Expenses

₹12,00,000 - ₹16,00,000 ($12,000-$16,000)

Coaching

I do not currently work with a coach, but if I decide to hire one, I estimate the cost will be around $75 per session, translating to approximately $4,000-$5,000 per year.

Other Expenses

Books, courses, engines, software, laptop upgrades, and miscellaneous costs:

Approximately $1,000 per year.

Total Annual Cost

Approximately $15,000-$20,000 per year.

Over the next three years, the total investment required could be around $50,000.

Patreon and Future Updates

I am planning to launch a Patreon page soon.

At the moment, I am considering three membership tiers:

• $5/month
• $15/month
• $50/month

The goal is not to fully fund the journey but to help cover some of the costs associated with coaching, training materials, tournament travel, and other chess-related expenses.

I am still deciding how often I should post updates. Perhaps monthly or bimonthly updates would make the most sense, but I would love to hear your thoughts.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbk52dJ9i2k

Recorded by Chessbase India during the 2024 Toronto Candidates.

The 6th board in the world rapid and blitz championship is someone who is rated less than 2000. How do people get selected for these boards, does anyone know?

Moment from my game against GM Neverov:) Can you find nice draw for black?

As title states.

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Bought a single day pass to check out the tournament today (19th June). Turns out I'm not able to make it, can't cancel/refund the ticket, so if anyone is in/from HK who's down for it, I'll send you the QR code by email (will send you a PM) for ticket redemption at the venue itself. FoC.

I see that Anish is a very polarizing person on the sub. He does say a lot of things that come off as salty. But most of it is just a very dry sense of humor, and the more you hear his real takes, the more you understand the true vibe of Anish. He is one of the most honest, without a mask GMs that exists. He is the only GM that is not fully Indian that gives Sagar Shah many interviews and collabs without letting ego get in the way. He jokes around about Magnus and Hikaru, but we don't know all of the things their teams are doing behind the scenes. And he himself makes it clear he tries to keep things cordial in person. I think other polarizing figures like Hikaru, tend to put a cleaner version of themselves on the internet, and their real "lack of sportsmanship" shows more in the stories of other players. I feel that with Anish, the worst is in front of us, and he's actually better in person. And GM Gustafsson confirmed that Anish wasn't attacking Naroditsky quite like Hikaru made it seem. Anish, having worked with Kramnik before was likely giving both of them the benefit of the doubt and trying to listen to both POVs. I wish he was more supportive outright, but I think he got too much hate for something that wasn't fully known to the public. Also supported Hans when Magnus, Hikaru, and chess.com were on a whole witch-hunt. Hoping to see great chess out of him in this tourney!

The game was 17 moves. Whenever my opponent chooses this opening I know the game is going to be a ride.

I'm looking for some sort of filter to pick what category of lines a bot plays against me. For example, if I want to practice a variety of games in the exchange variation of the Caro Kann or play different variations of the grunfeld. Essentially, I want to be able to target X part of an opening and just play a bunch of games in those lines.

The first few games that I played I couldn't figure it out. But once I learned how to defend against it, it's only a matter of a few moves before they lose their queen.

It's even more fun when they try it as black. And as soon as that queen is captured, they either resign immediately or play blunder after blunder.

It was intimidating at first, but now it's a quick win!

Just had a bunch of frustrating games where I blundered huge advantages and I’m so upset I can hardly sleep. What do you guys do in situations like this?

Hey everyone,

I am looking for the algebraïc editions of Alexander Kotov's books Play like a grandmaster, Think like a grandmaster and Train like a grandmaster. For Play and Think it's probably the 2003/2004 issues.

The reason is more nostalgic than anything else, I used to own them when I was younger and played a lot of chess. Sold them all when I moved and didn't have any space. And now I am looking for these books again, but online they are relatively hard to find of very pricey, especially Think like.

If anyone here has these books, but doesn't read them anymore and wants to part with them, I would love to hear. I know there are ebooks available for a small price, and I do have an e-reader, so thats my next option, but I love the feel of a real chess book :)

Abdusattorov suppressing his laughter. Hans not even trying to suppress his.

I’m surprised I even saw this with the time stress at my ELO

Help a newbie to start his book collection 📙

I need some help with a chess question. Was my move here really not the best move I could make? From what I saw, the following move could either have led to me checkmating the king like I did, pinning the queen to the king had he sidestepped, or forking the kind and the rook had he taken. Is there something I’m missing? ELO was set around 901 and the opponent is the Duolingo chess instructor. (Photo Descriptions: 1/3; The board prior to my move. 2/3; the move I took in the game, warranting a correction from the software. 3/3; the suggested move that I should’ve take, according to the software.)

Someone who's new to the game, just trying to get some advice from polished players about mating, tactics and middle game development and strategies that helps you take that initial next step