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Vyom Vidyarthi (‘25): My life is mostly academics, chess and sports. That pretty much covers it. 

Ever since when you could first start playing interscholastic sports in fourth grade, ever since then I’ve been playing as many sports as would allow. Then, it was  four seasons and you could do track as well as the other sports so it was five sports every year. And then eighth grade was unfortunate because of Covid. We couldn’t do anything pretty much, but it’s been pretty similar for me. Not much of like I went from playing one sport to now playing a bunch.

I’ve always enjoyed sports, I’ve always played multiple. There are people have suggested ‘Oh, you should focus on one,’ and okay, sometimes I do consider if I did focus on one, maybe I would be this much better at it and it probably is true. Like if I did focus on just water polo, I’d be a little bit I’d be a little bit better than I am now. But what would I do with that whole other time, like is it really worth it. I guess water polo is one season, and okay, you could play club year round but I feel like playing those other two school sports, they might not help me later on but there’s something I really, really enjoy and I definitely wouldn’t change a thing about it.

A lot friends have come through sports. Of course there’s just general friends that I have but many of them, I’ve played some sport with since a very young age. And then sports has helped me with my time management, helped me with school. A lot of the stuff I learned from sports is very applicable to school, leadership, stuff like that. And I think it’s just something that in life is very important. I think it teaches a lot of skills that you will end up using later on. I think it’s a very good measure. And then just generally I guess I do it because it’s fun. it’s not really something that’s like ‘Oh, I need to do this for college apps or something.’ I do it because it’s fun

I guess it’s just something I’ve gotten used to. My free time is playing the sports, that’s what I enjoy doing, and I’ll find time for chess in the car or when I’m taking a break from homework, but that’s that’s just kind of the routine I’ve gotten into.

I personally feel that compared to most people at that level, they spend hours on chess and they have prepped everything. If they know what you’re going to play, you’re not going to be a good situation. And for me I feel the best thing that I have is I think I understand the game better than most people. I don’t have the same level of preparation necessarily, but if I can get into a position that neither of us are familiar with then I like my chances. So I try to just play something different that they haven’t seen and get into a game where you can actually play the game. You really have to know who you’re playing against, and when you feel like you’re not improving it’s time for you to change something. 

Omya Vidyarthi (10): I think one thing is since he’s always been very hard working and maybe me not so much, looking at him really inspired me to become a better version of myself. Seeing how much he practices, it made me want to practice more as well and just to live up to what he’s done is really incredible, and I think he’s really helped me along the way. Even though maybe we don’t talk as much when we’re with other people, I think at home it’s very clear that he’s very helpful and kind.

Vyom: A lot of time she’s played against someone who I’m paired against or vice versa. And then we’re going to show the game that we’ve played, because we have it saved. And we can say ‘Oh, this is their tendency. I noticed this when I played them.’ So it’s kind of like giving some feedback about what to expect. And then a lot of times it’ll just be like, ‘Oh, I suggest you look at this file,’ because we just share all our chess files. So like ‘Oh, you should look at this opening. He’s likely to play that.’ ‘Oh, you should look at this general position because she’s likely to play that.’ That kind of thing where we kind of help each other out, but I mean during the game, you can’t do anything. I like to actually watch her game and see what’s going on in her position. She likes to just sit at her board and play her game the entire time so we’re kind of different like that. Chess is what I want to do and so it’s not me being forced to do it because it’s going to benefit me in any way. It’s what I enjoy doing so I just keep doing it.