Chahal Credits Pedigree In Chess For Making Him Patient On Cricket Field

Chess master-turned-cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal on Sunday went back to his old passion, hogging the limelight in an online blitz event organised by chess.com, and said the sport taught him to be patient on the cricket field.

Yuzvendra Chahal

New Delhi: India's frontline legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal has done enough to stake his claim as India's spin bowling spearhead in the limited overs format of the game. Chahal along with his spin twin Kuldeep Yadav have played a major role in Team India's superlative consistentcy and stellar success in white ball cricket. Apart from his cricketing pedigree,Chahal is also known to have a chess accumen and excelled at the sport during his young days before foraying into cricket and rising to become an international star. Chess master-turned-cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal on Sunday went back to his old passion, hogging the limelight in 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. "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 T20 Internationals, said he did so because he had more interest in cricket. "I had to chose between chess and cricket. I spoke to dad who said the choice was (yours). I had more interest in cricket and opted for it." Blitz is one of the three formats in chess in which a player gets 10 minutes or less, with or without time increments. Chahal matched his wits against the likes of prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, India's second youngest Grandmaster ever, GMs B Adhiban, Nihar Sarin and Karthikeyan Murali, among others. Chahal, who would have been a part of the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore if the IPL had gone ahead, said he had been spending time with family members.