Chess World Cup: Diptayan Ghosh, who once took a 2-year break to work in a bank, beats 2-time world championship contender Ian Nepomniachtchi

On a day when he achieved his greatest result on the chess board, Diptayan Ghosh looks back at the two years he lost during the prime of his career with a hint of regret. The year was 2021 when Ghosh emerged from the Delhi School of Economics with a degree and a job at a corporate bank in Mumbai.

But taking the job meant Ghosh’s chess career took a backseat. With COVID having reduced the number of tournaments to a trickle, and with no sponsors to back his ambitions, Ghosh decided to put his once-promising career on hold and become a corporate employee.

It was a gig that lasted two years before Ghosh quit his job to play chess again.

“I was just bored (working at the corporate role),” Ghosh said with a grin when he looked back at those years in Mumbai on the day he sent home two-time w