{"id":335091,"date":"2026-03-08T08:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T08:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/335091\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T08:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T08:37:14","slug":"initially-chess-didnt-fascinate-me-i-grew-to-love-it-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/335091\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Initially, chess didn\u2019t fascinate me. I grew to love it\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-one-year-old Trisha Kanyamarala became the first Irish<\/a> woman to be awarded the title of woman grandmaster (WGM) in chess<\/a>, following her high standard of play at the London<\/a> Chess Classic recently. <\/p>\n

The achievement marked the pinnacle of a six-year journey for Kanyamarala, who previously became Ireland\u2019s first woman international master in 2020, aged just 14. <\/p>\n

Speaking about the achievement, she said: \u201cI was incredibly happy and relieved when I met the requirements. The tournament was competitive, with many grandmasters and international masters playing, but from very early on, I felt confident in my play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaining a woman grandmaster title (or \u201cnorm\u201d) involves reaching a chess rating of 2,300, while also achieving a performance rating of 2,400 across three officially recognised tournaments. To put this in context, a casual chess player might be rated between 800 and 1,000, while the world\u2019s number one player, Magnus Carlsen, boasts a rating of 2,840. <\/p>\n

Kanyamarala had been close to snagging her WGM title on previous occasions but, following several poor performances, she had all but given up on the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no expectations of the norm when I went into this tournament. I just wanted to give my best. Previously, I\u2019d played a tournament in Poland, which went terribly. So coming to London, I hadn\u2019t much hope. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I started well. I beat an English grandmaster named Peter Wells in my second round. At that point, I started thinking I could attempt to get the norm. But it can be difficult when these thoughts start entering your head. It will sometimes happen that, when chess players have a good performance, we let ourselves get distracted by thoughts of norms and titles. So I had to really shut all that down and focus solely on the games. In my eighth round, I drew against a Ukrainian international master, and that was enough for me to reach WGM.\u201d <\/p>\n

She shared her joy with her brother, Tarun Kanyamarala (21), himself a former Irish chess champion and the youngest Irish person to achieve the title of international master. <\/p>\n

For the siblings, chess is a family affair. Their father, who taught them to play, moved to Ireland from India in the early 2000s. The family spent time in both countries before eventually settling in Portlaoise.<\/p>\n

\"TrishaTrisha Kanyamarala, the first Irish woman ever to become a Woman Grandmaster in chess. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n

\u201cI started playing chess when I was seven or eight years old. My dad taught me and brother at the same time. I wasn\u2019t that interested, initially. I understood the basics, but it didn\u2019t fascinate me. I preferred other activities. I really loved Irish dancing \u2013 it was my favorite thing before discovering chess.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut every day after school, my dad and my brother would sit down to play. I would see them and feel left out. They would also go to a chess club, and I would tag along. For weeks, I would go there, not play, and feel bored. So eventually I started playing and grew to love it.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018There\u2019s surprise, anger, frustration\u2019: Why chess is taking off in primary schoolsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A chess prodigy, Kanyamarala put aside all else (including Irish dancing) to focus on the game. The daily work of a professional player involves practising for \u201caround five or six hours a day\u201d. As a teenager, chess eclipsed other aspects of her life, and she emphasises her gratitude for how her alma mater, Portlaoise College, gave her time off to compete in international tournaments. <\/p>\n

Having completed her Leaving Cert in 2023, she opted to pursue chess as a career rather than going into higher education. \u201cI loved it so much that I wanted to be in a place where I got to play it all the time,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s the main thing for me.\u201d As well as competing in tournaments, Kanyamarala and her brother Tarun founded their own business, Irish Chess Technology, which is dedicated to promoting the game in Ireland. <\/p>\n

In many ways, it\u2019s a smart time to choose chess as a career. The game has had a global surge in popularity following the success of The Queen\u2019s Gambit<\/a> and the advent of online streaming. Chess also features in Sally Rooney\u2019s latest book, Intermezzo<\/a>. An entire industry has been built around chess in recent years, with popular online players reaping substantial financial returns for their videos and live streams. Its popularity is such that the world number two-ranked player, Hikaru Nakamura, recently suggested that competitive tournaments rank lower on his list of priorities than streaming. <\/p>\n

\u201cI follow a lot of these streamers myself,\u201d says Kanyamarala. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see what they\u2019re doing, because it makes the game popular. I\u2019ve never tried it, but I want to explore that area as well. My brother and I have a YouTube channel, Anytime Chess, where we upload our videos and offer analysis. I think we would be interested in making more chess content in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Above all, though, Kanyamarala is determined to promote Ireland as a competitive chess nation. At the time of writing, Ireland sits 60th on the FIDE (governing chess body\u2019s) World Federation Rankings. She hopes that building a chess infrastructure in the country can improve that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to see Ireland becoming a competitive chess country,\u201d she says. \u201cThere is a growing chess culture here, you see it in the school clubs and in the weekend tournaments, but it\u2019s maybe not as strong as in other European countries. I\u2019d like to contribute anything that helps it grow.\u201d <\/p>\n

Similarly, she hopes to encourage more women to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was younger, there weren\u2019t many girls who played chess. Nowadays, every girl knows about it. It\u2019s become cool, in some ways. You see more girls and women playing at schools, which is great, but not as many at tournaments, so there\u2019s still a gap there to be improved.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the woman grandmaster title was only introduced in 1976; the threshold for achieving it is slightly lower than grandmaster, but this is because it was designed specifically to encourage more women to play competitively. For many women, including Kanyamarala, becoming a WGM is a step towards future ambitions. Asked about her long-term goals, she says she aspires to be ranked among the top 100 female chess players in the world (currently, she sits at 164th).<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I lost to a very strong eight-year-old\u2019: how chess is capturing the imagination of a new generation in IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

For now, though, she plans to keep competing in international tournaments. She speaks appreciatively about the fact that chess has allowed her to travel the world, \u201cfrom Mexico to Japan\u201d. In September, she\u2019ll travel to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, as part of a team representing Ireland at the 2026 Chess Olympiad. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the major one for us,\u201d she says. \u201cThe Olympiad only happens once every two years, and it\u2019s going to be a really strong tournament. Every Olympiad, Ireland keeps improving its rank, so we\u2019re looking forward to seeing what we can achieve this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-one-year-old Trisha Kanyamarala became the first Irish woman to be awarded the title of woman grandmaster (WGM) in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[82755,631,61,153516,60,43,976],"class_list":["post-335091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-chess","tag-for-you","tag-ie","tag-international-women-s-day","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-weekendreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}