New Delhi: For those unfamiliar with India’s popular quiz show “Kun Banega Crorepati” (KBC), hosted by legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan, the term “hot seat” may conjure up a strange image. But, in fact, this is where contestants like Bachchan vs. “Kun Banna Crorepati?” are sitting in the Indian version ofFor India’s 72nd Grandmaster, Mitrbha Guha, arriving there in February last year was as unexpected as it was memorable. “Actually, with KBC, you never really know if the call is genuinely from KBC because KBC itself doesn’t call people directly,” Dostabha’s father Raj Guha told TimesofIndia.com, recalling an incident last year when “someone contacted him through Instagram and asked, ‘Are you interested in coming to KBC?'” In 2025, as the show celebrated its silver jubilee, producers looked for under-25 recipients. While India’s leading IITs and IIMs nominate their brightest students, few places are reserved for exceptional performers outside academia. Then 23, Guha, already one of the country’s leading chess players, found himself among the chosen few.“He thought, ‘Okay, I’ll come.’ But he asked me, ‘Will I be able to do it? He will ask questions,” his father said. “They did a lot of phone interviews and finally told him, ‘No, you’re all right, come on, we’ll take you.’ However, this experience was unlike anything he had ever encountered on chess. “It was a really unique experience. Shooting for four or five days, and getting the chance to play in front of Amitabh Bachchan was very special. To be honest, it was quite surprising that I got such an opportunity live,” Dostabha, who is currently in Italy as the coach of the Indian team participating in the World Youth Chess Championship, told website 20620.
4.8 lakhs in KBC to India’s last ENC qualifier
While the KBC hot seat and the Rs 4.8 lakh she won remain a defining part of her journey, Dostabha, now 24, has recently taken the chess world by storm with her over-the-board craftwork.The GM from West Bengal has secured India’s final berth in the inaugural chess competition at the Esports Nations Cup (ENC) 2026 in Riyadh. ENC’s qualification comes on the back of a gold medal at the Commonwealth Chess Championship title, its second after previously winning in the same ring during the 2023-24 season.“Commonwealth gold was great,” added the athlete. “Obviously the ENC is a bonus, and I’m very happy that I’m playing quite well at the moment. Hopefully I can maintain my form and play even better in the future.”His path to qualification was anything but straight. “The esports tournament was a bit confusing because it involves two events: the esports World Cup and the esports Nations Cup,” he said. “I received a message from Chess.com saying that the tournament was a regional qualifier for India and only one spot was available. So I decided to play, and luckily I won the first qualifier.”Guha topped the nine-round Swiss event with 7.5 points and went unbeaten before advancing to the knockout stages, becoming India’s second representative along with Nihal Sarin. who had already secured a direct invitation through the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) standings..
When Grandmaster Debindu Barwa changed his mind.
Guha’s chess journey began in Kolkata when he was barely three and a half years old. “At that time, the minimum age for entry into the academy was six,” his father recalled.“We called Dibyendu Barua’s academy and said my son knows all the moves. They told us to come back when he’s six. I said, ‘Just watch it once. If you don’t want to take it, that’s fine.’
Dostabha Guha (Special Arrangements)
When GM Barwa saw the child easily explain the move, he changed his mind. “He (Barwa) said, ‘I can see that he knows everything even at the age of three and a half. I’ll take it.’ And so the journey began,” added father Raj.By the age of six, Guha was ready for his first international assignment, an under-8 tournament in Vietnam. His father said sending a six-year-old abroad was unthinkable in those days. “His mother started crying. But Mitrbha himself acted as if nothing was wrong. In fact he was wiping the tears from his mother’s eyes.”
A middle class gamble.
Playing chess at an elite level requires more than skill. Guha family was getting used to this bitter truth day by day. “Our finances were not very strong,” his father, a civil servant, admitted, “chess required a lot of money.”The struggle continued for years.“In Kolkata, there is virtually no sponsorship and no government support, almost none. All expenses, whether for playing tournaments in Europe or for coaching, I have to cover from my prize money,” he asserted.
Dostabha received the National Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Government of India in 2013
“Financial problems faced me from a very young age and I continued to deal with it until around 2019, when I became an international master,” said Mitrabha, born in 2001.His father described those years as “incredibly difficult”. “From the age of four to eighteen, it was very difficult for a middle-class family,” he said. “There are no guarantees in these sports. You can run from four to eighteen and still never know if you’re going to be an IM or a GM.”
turn
Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a turning point. “During COVID, the number of online chess tournaments has increased significantly,” said the grandmaster, adding that winning more tournaments there would lead to more prize money, and that it came to Dostabha’s aid. “That helped me financially, and I haven’t had these problems since.”Much of GM’s rise was due to his mother Sujata Guha, who accompanied him to tournaments in the country and abroad in his early years. Tied to her responsibilities with her father as a civil servant, it was Sujata who traveled almost constantly with the young chess player until she turned 18. Dostabha regained his Grandmaster title in 2022.
Mitrabha’s mother Sujata Guha and father Raj Guha (screengrabs)
Beyond chess, Dostabha is currently pursuing an MBA. “We never skimped on studies,” his father said. “If things don’t work out, eventually you have to find a job.”Today, with financial uncertainty largely behind him and invitations from tournaments around the world pouring in, Guha is focused on the sport that has defined his life. “Playing is his life,” his father said. “Coaching is not very important to him at the moment. Maybe in four or five years he will think about it, but for now he is focused on playing.”Also read: Exclusive interview with R Praganandha: ‘Winning ahead of Magnus Carlsen is something I’ve always wanted’Titans from around the world, such as Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, will arrive in Riyadh later this year to compete in the Esports Nation Cup in November. The Grandmaster from Kolkata will be one of them, and this is where he has always thrived, on the hot seat.
