This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Indian grandmaster Swayams Mishra.

At the young age of 32, Swayams is already a decorated chess coach, having worked with the Indian national team for several years and coaching their women’s team to gold at this year’s Olympiad. His private coaching practice has also been successful: this year, his mentee Shreyas Royal became the youngest grandmaster in British history.

Interviewed by Jacob Aagaard, Swayams talks about his transition from player to coach, shares his experience with the Indian women's team, and gives three pieces of advice for ambitious players of all levels!

0:00 – Intro

1:54 – Welcome Swayams!

3:55 – Where Swayams and Jacob first met

5:03 – Does Sam Shankland troll Swayams’s online sessions?

5:48 – Jacob tells a (non-child-friendly) Stany story

7:31 – What was Swayams’s role in the Indian’s women’s team at this year’s Olympiad?

9:02 – Swayams explains the difference between coaching men versus women

10:18 – AD BREAK

11:00 – How do Swayams’s days look when his pupils are playing big tournaments?

13:03 – To what does Swayams attribute the current Indian chess boom?

16:17 – Swayams stresses how universally popular chess is and predicts its possible inclusion in future Olympic games

19:30 – The role of petroleum companies in sponsoring Indian chess

21:53 – Swayams’s success coaching Shreyas Royal, who became the youngest British grandmaster in history; multiple-time Indian Women’s Champion Padmini Rout; and Ethan Vaz, a young talent who Swayams regards as the future of Indian chess

24:39 – AD BREAK

25:37 – Swayams gives three pieces of advice for an ambitious chess player trying to improve

28:56 – Outro