Parents Sold Land to Fund Son's Chess Dream—He's Now a GM

When Aronyak Ghosh earned his grandmaster title last Sunday in Bangkok, it marked the end of a journey that cost his family nearly everything they owned.

Starting in 2014, Mrinal and Sanchita Ghosh began selling off ancestral properties in their village to fund their son's chess tournaments and training. By the time Aronyak finally achieved his International Master title, the family's savings were nearly depleted.

"We sold it little by little," says Mrinal, a chess arbiter who works from their home in India. His wife Sanchita, a lawyer, even took loans against her wedding jewelry to keep their son competing.

The 22-year-old Aronyak was always aware of his parents' sacrifices. While other young chess prodigies focused on trophies and ratings, he developed an unusual mindset for a 10-year-old: he targeted prize money first.

"By the time he was just 10, he realized that he had to focus on prize money not trophies," Mrinal explains. "Trophies will come."

That practical focus became crucial during the COVID pandemic, when Aronyak brought in 80 percent of the family's income by playing online chess tournaments. While contemporaries like Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa raced ahead with better funding and training, Aronyak kept grinding.

The path to grandmaster took four years after his first norm. He missed achieving the required performance by the slimmest margins at least three or four times.

Why This Inspires

This story brings chess full circle for the Ghosh family in an unexpected way. When Mrinal was in 10th grade in 1986, he was studying at Alekhine Chess Club and falling in love with the game. Then his father suffered a cardiac arrest.

Family responsibilities took over, and chess disappeared from his life. "Back in those days, even Viswanathan Anand was not a grandmaster," Mrinal recalls.

Decades later, a four-year-old Aronyak discovered his father's childhood chess set gathering dust. Watching his son move the same pieces he once held reignited something in Mrinal. His own competitive appetite returned, and Aronyak's first tournament experience was watching his father play.

When Aronyak's interest deepened, Mrinal quit competing to focus entirely on his son's career. Over the years, he's worked as a coach, tournament organizer, and now serves as a FIDE arbiter.

"But my best role till date is that of Aronyak Ghosh's father," Mrinal says proudly.

Looking back at the last four years of chasing those final two grandmaster norms, Aronyak calls it a "hell of a ride." The ancestral land is gone, but India has its 95th grandmaster—and a father has reclaimed the dream he once had to abandon.