How 16-year-old IM Akshay Borgaonkar conquered both chess and academics
A few months back, 16-year-old Akshay Borgaonkar from Pune became an International Master. He earned both his final IM norm and his maiden GM norm at the SixDays Budapest March GM-A Round Robin tournament, scoring an impressive 7/9. Soon after that, he also scored a phenomenal 98% in his Class 10 CBSE exams! While many young athletes are forced to choose between their passion and academics, Akshay, with the right mindset and time management, has shown that it is possible to pursue both and excel. In this article, he shares exactly how he managed to do it. So, read on to learn from his journey in his own words!
Why not both?
They say you can’t chase two dreams at once. To truly excel, you must pick one path and give it your all. How can you juggle two important paths? For young chess players, it’s very hard to manage both chess and academics. Balancing intense training, long tournaments, and travel schedules with school, homework, and exams can be very tiring. Many put their passion on hold and choose academics, while some choose the opposite. But how many choose both? We rarely hear such examples, because walking that tightrope takes immense discipline and clarity! Akshay Borgaonkar from Pune is one such rare example. This year, he became an International Master and also secured a splendid 98% in his CBSE Class 10 exams. His right mindset made it possible for him to follow both worlds. Read about his journey in his own words!
Balancing Chess and Academics
People believe it’s impossible to manage chess and academics, especially since our beloved sport is very intensive and time-consuming at the same time. One tournament lasts 10 days, which essentially forces chess professionals to not attend school for the most part, which leads to academic compromise. Well, I managed to get 98% in my 10th CBSE board exams ... .and I was playing classical tournaments actively until October…did not attend a single tuition…and I became an IM in the very next tournament I played after my exams!
I was focused primarily on completing my IM title until October 2024. I played in the Abu Dhabi Masters and the Tamil Nadu IM Norm in August and September and 2 tournaments in Europe in quick succession. Around mid-October, I started to focus on my 10th board exams and kept chess on the sidelines. I wasn’t well-versed with most of the concepts, and I had a lot of backlog. However, chess players have developed the ability to focus and concentrate for a long time. I managed to put in good self-study sessions to cope with the backlog. For subjects like social studies, the memory strengthened by the habit of having to memorise modern theory and engine prep helped a lot, and I was able to cover the vast portion in a much shorter time than most others at school. I believe it’s not possible to achieve such a good result in just 3.5 months of study without the habits inculcated by chess playing.
One of the best decisions I made in my express journey to 98% was not playing any tournaments in January. I wanted to play the Qatar Masters/Tashkent President Cup, but they clashed with my 1st pre-boards (where I scored 95%). Since I only needed one norm to finish the IM title, it was very tempting to convince the school management to skip my 2nd pre-boards and play one classical tournament as one last attempt before the 10th. The school management was convinced, but we made the conscious decision of staying put and focusing on exam preparation. It’s not just about the productive work that was put in during those 10 days, but it’s usually very taxing to shift from chess preparation to academic preparation, and it’s best not to overexert before the big exams.
Another aspect in these few months of exam preparation was that I never completely stopped working on my chess. I played blitz during my breaks, played Titled Tuesdays fairly regularly, and followed the World Championship and the Tata Steel Masters very closely. I even played a blitz match on chess.com a day before my Maths board exams! (I would not recommend doing precisely that, but I do think staying in touch with chess in some way or the other way is very important for any professional). I played my next tournament exactly 2 weeks after my board exams (where I completed my title and scored my maiden GM norm!). The main benefit of not blocking out chess from my study routine was that I didn’t feel very rusty when I came back to intensive training after my boards.
My routine on the break days was heavily influenced by the usual habits associated with pre-tournament routines. I treated all the exams like tournament games. In my second board exam, Science, I absolutely nailed the exam and was elated with my performance. However, I realised that I had made the stupidest of errors on a Physics numerical (unfortunately, in the first step itself) and would therefore get zero marks for the entire sum! I’m quite a perfectionist in general, so I was pretty disappointed, but I tried my best to keep my cool and focus on the next exam. Another thing I’ve learnt from chess. One can never understate the importance of staying calm and bouncing back after a tough loss in chess. Similar to what one has to do if a particular exam doesn’t go your way. (I scored 100/100 in the next subject (French)
Doing well in my board exams was also personally important to me. In my opinion, doing well in academics takes some pressure off your chess journey. Psychologically, there’s always a fall-back plan that is comforting in a rather inexplicable manner. My advice would be to reinforce academic performance, especially in important exams, with the skills we subconsciously develop through our chess journey. As chess players, we can channel our memory, concentration, and problem-solving abilities into academics as well.
Interestingly, preparing for boards also helped me gain a broader perspective on chess post-10th. If done the right way, academics and chess can genuinely complement each other. Even if you're certain about pursuing a career in chess, I’d still recommend giving your best in board exams. Sure, we all love chess more than studies—but if the necessity can help your chess too, it’s absolutely worth it.
This article is edited by Rasika Ratnaparkhi.