the turning point in the life of former college professor raghavan came along with an unfortunate incident in early 2019 he had just lost his job as part of a sudden layoff and was made to reflect on his career this is when he decided to turn things around by steering focus onto his passion while also helping people in needthe internationally rated chess player has been teaching the game to differently abled children and kids from underprivileged backgrounds for the past two years well through the pandemic free of charge these children deserve the same opportunities that we do and i wanted to do my part in making them realise their dream raghavan saysapart from training children in and around his neighbourhood the chess player has also been teaching the game to differently abled kids through zoom and whatsapp sessions during the pandemic the game is a big lifeskill for children looking to keep their minds healthy he notes adding that differently abled children are often naturals at the game which is nothing but a battle of brainsdifferently abled children have exceptional visual abilities their left and right brain functioning is impeccable and it helps that chess is about the mind and not just stamina he explains raghavan who has been teaching up to 20 children regularly makes use of colourful boards to tap into the visual senses of his studentschildren are great at geometric patterns so by tapping to their visual senses i teach them the basics and coordination i teach them the board every day and i try to make the board colourful too to engage their visual senses says raghavan who goes on to recall his first tryst with the gamehis eidetic memory drew him to the format of chess according to the selftaught chess player ever since my childhood i have had a good memory power and i wanted to make something of it and when i was studying in college i saw many play chess with each other i would sit and observe their moves and would remember every notation this is when i realised that chess was the right fit for me he recalls adding that he has played more than 150 national and international tournaments in the countryfinancial downturns further prompted him to give up his dream to be a performer and achieve a new dream to become a teacher instead he adds i do not have any academic education in chess and learnt only through books and videos i want to pass on this knowledge to children who can make something out of this at tournaments he says adding my dream is to begin a bigger organisation to help children from these backgrounds in different games like chess and cubics opportunities are everything and these children deserve them allchess in the pandemicwhile the popularity of the game among other board games have soared during the pandemic thanks to shows like the queens gambit the reach could be much bigger raghavan