How did a father's promise help Rayaan become National Champion?

A father's promise to his son

We come across interesting stories from time to time. This article is about one such unique story. Recently, Rayaan Rozario became the National U-9 Champion. It is a great achievement for sure, but the motivation behind this achievement is quite interesting.

Rayaan's father, Danton Rozario, works in the merchant navy and spends around six months of every year at sea. There have been many important moments in Rayaan's chess journey that Danton could not witness in person. One of them came when Rayaan became the District Champion in January 2026; Danton was somewhere in the middle of the ocean. He found out about his son's victory through a phone call.

I keep refreshing the results on Chess-Results, waiting for every pairing and every result. Sometimes the internet in the middle of the ocean isn’t great, but somehow I always find a way to check.

- Danton said.

Naturally, for a father, missing such moments can be difficult. Danton's job meant spending long periods away from his family, but he also wanted to be there. So, he made his son a promise: if Rayaan won the National Championship, he would not go to sea!

“Being an only son myself, I know exactly what it feels like to look for that pat on the back from your father and that warm hug from your mother. Making my parents proud meant everything to me. Naturally, I believed my son would long for the same feeling,”

- Danton said.

Parents often have big expectations from their children. But Rayaan's parents have a different approach. They have also never tried to protect Rayaan from making mistakes. They want him to learn from them. Danton loves challenging his son. He wants Rayaan to believe that he can do more and discover what he is capable of. After every game, Rayaan looks at what went wrong and tries to understand how he can avoid making the same mistake again. He also appreciates when his opponent has played a brilliant game.

For his parents, winning is important, but it is not everything. They are proud when Rayaan wins. But they are equally interested in the kind of person he is becoming when he loses.

When Rayaan first started playing chess, his parents were simply taking the necessary steps. They did not know much about the chess world or how much it could influence a young player. The U-7 National Championship was Rayaan's first rated tournament. His parents were hoping that he would get his rating. Instead, he finished 10th in the tournament. His rating opened as the highest in India in the U-7 category and the third highest in the world. He was also the only Indian among the top five players in the world in his age category. What made this even more surprising was that Rayaan had not been properly trained for the tournament.

We would take one step towards chess, and Rayaan would show us results that are 10 times our effort.

- Danton said.

That was when the family decided to give Rayaan better training and better opportunities and see how far he could go. Later, his State Championship performance gave his parents an idea of how tough the Nationals would be. They realised that his accuracy was good and his attacking instincts were strong, but time management was something he needed to improve.

There was only one month left before the Nationals. The family took permission from his school and increased his online coaching from two hours to five hours a day. He would also play online games after his coaching sessions to practise what he had learnt. They worked on his time management, decision-making under pressure and blitz games. They wanted to make him more comfortable when the clock was running down.

Rayaan's father also had his own way of motivating him. He would jokingly tell Rayaan before tournaments, “Please don’t win the biggest trophy. I won’t be able to carry it home. We might have to hire a truck just for your trophy!”

Such little challenges usually worked with Rayaan. But this time, there was a much bigger motivation. His father made him a promise of not going to the sea if Rayaan wins the tournament.

Rayaan had an excellent run at the National U-9 Championship. He won nine of his 11 games, drew one and lost just one that made his final score 9.5/11. The last two games seemed to end in draws. But Rayaan found a way to win both. And that's how Rayaan became the National U-9 Champion! As promised, his father will now stay ashore for a year and travel with him to tournaments.

Another interesting part of Rayaan's preparation is how he deals with his own games. Rayaan has never used ChessBase software. He analyses his games on Chess.com and Lichess. After every tournament or practice session, he looks at his games himself. He tries to understand where he went wrong and what he can do differently next time. Rayaan does not have a laptop and has to rely on phone for preparations. We have decided to give him a laptop as part of the ChessBase India YouTube Members Program.

There is a lot that happens behind a young player's success that people do not see. Chess parents have to change their routine around their child's training and tournament schedule. Weekends are often spent at tournaments instead of family outings. Holidays have to be planned around the chess calendar. There are also financial sacrifices. Coaching, travel, accommodation and tournament fees all require considerable investment.

Rayaan's mother, Fatima, manages his travel, preparation and tournaments. Danton gives her a lot of credit.

None of this would have been possible without his mother. She has carried an incredible responsibility. She has stepped into my shoes whenever required, managed the travel, the emotions, the preparation, and stood beside him through every single game. She deserves far more credit than I do.

- He said.

Travelling to tournaments has also helped her deal with the loneliness she feels when Danton is away.

Rayaan has a long road ahead, with bigger tournaments and new challenges waiting for him. His family is now looking for sponsors who can support him as he takes the next steps in his chess journey. This support would help Rayaan participate in stronger tournaments and access better training.

If you would like to support Rayaan's chess journey, you can get in touch with his parents at +91 9176151176 or rayaanrozario@gmail.com.

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