India's 40th Grandmaster, Swapnil Dhopade, has opened an offline branch of his Chess Pathshala academy in Nagpur. The initiative follows six years of online coaching and aims to provide focused training for ambitious players. The first camp is scheduled for February 12 to 18.
Grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade, India's 40th Grandmaster, founded Chess Pathshala as an online chess academy in 2019 after six years of coaching involvement. He has trained notable players, including World Junior Rapid Champion Raunak Sadhwani, who became a Grandmaster at 13 years and 9 months, and two-time National Junior Girls Champion Shubhi Gupta, who won the National Junior Championship 2025.
Other achievements include guiding GM Sankalp Gupta to the Grandmaster title in about two years, Soham Kamotra as the first International Master from Jammu & Kashmir, Dushyant Sharma as the first from Punjab, and Sherali Pattnaik from a 1700 rating to a peak of 2300 in two years. Dhopade has also coached International Masters, Grandmasters, and the Indian Women’s Team at events like the Chennai Chess Olympiad, World Team Championship, and Asian Nations Cup.
The move to an offline academy in Nagpur stems from observations during offline camps, where students showed higher concentration and commitment compared to online sessions. "The level of concentration, commitment, and seriousness among students was significantly higher in an offline environment," Dhopade said. He noted that face-to-face interactions allow deeper impact, better mindset reading, and group energy that fosters competitiveness, which is hard to replicate online.
Dhopade's vision is to create a focused training space for tournament players, serving as a hub for North and Central India to access Grandmaster guidance without long travel. "The primary motivation behind starting this academy was never financial," he stated, emphasizing bridging regional gaps in chess development.
The inaugural camp targets players rated above 2100, running from February 12 to 18 with sessions from 2 PM to 5 PM at a fee of Rs. 14,200. Confirmed participants include Vaibhav Raut, Sidhhant Gawai, Mrudul Dehankar, Srishti Pandey, Shaunak Badole, Vivaan Saraogi, Kushal Jain, Priyanshu Patil, and Sakshan Wadhwa. Interested students can register via the academy's form, and coaches may apply for association.
