A space where strong players get stronger
By Rasika Ratnaparkhi
Chola Chess is one of India’s most ambitious and structured training initiatives. It was launched in July 2025 with a goal to identify and nurture India’s promising chess talents. On 1 April 2026, they conducted their 100th chess camp. Behind this initiative are four driven individuals: GM R.B. Ramesh, WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy (who leads Chess Gurukul), along with Kanika Subbiah and Vellayan Subbiah from Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company. Together, they have built a program that has trained over 1300 players so far.
How four individuals came together to launch the Chola Chess initiative
The programme provides high-quality training to selected players at no cost. This approach plays a significant role in widening the base of competitive chess in India. Some of India’s most familiar names like Tania Sachdev, Soumya Swaminathan, Adhiban Baskaran and many more, have been part of Chola Chess camps. You can read more about it in this article.
So what do they actually study? Below are positions from the Chola Chess training camp. GM Michal Krasenkow, GM Debashis Das and GM Sundarrajan Kidambi were the coaches for this camp. See if you can solve these positions. Solutions to these positions are provided at the end of the article.
In this course, we will learn how to identify passively placed pieces in any given situation and how to improve their health by bringing them into active squares.
Positions
Solutions
Select an entry from the list to switch between positions