Leggie Chahal goes back to old passion

Chennai, April 5

Chess master-turned-cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal today went back to his old passion, headlining an online blitz event organised by chess.com, and said the sport taught him to be patient on the cricket field. A former national Under-12 chess champion, India cricketer Chahal has the distinction of having represented the country at the World Youth Chess Championships, and is listed on the World Chess Federation (FIDE) website. His Elo rating is 1956.

In a freewheeling interaction with Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta and International Master Rakesh Kulkarni before the event got underway, Chahal said, “Chess taught me patience. In cricket, you may be bowling well but you may not get wickets. Like in a Test match you may have bowled well in a day but not got wickets but you have to come back the next day so you need to be patient. Chess has helped me a lot in that way. I have learnt to be patient and get batsmen out.”

Asked about the decision to choose cricket over chess despite doing fairly well in the board game, Chahal, who has played 52 ODIs and 42 T20Is, said he did so because he had “more interest in cricket”. — PTI