From Rs 4.8 lakh in KBC to Commonwealth Chess gold and now carrying India’s ENC hopes: Mitrabha Guha remains on the hot seat

Grandmaster Mitrabha Guha remains on the hot seat NEW DELHI: For those unfamiliar with India’s iconic quiz show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (KBC), hosted by legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan, the term ‘hot seat’ may evoke a bizarre image. But it’s actually where the contestants sit opposite Bachchan in the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”For India’s 72nd Grandmaster Mitrabh Guha, getting there in February last year was as unexpected as it was memorable. “Actually with KBC, you never know if the call is actually from KBC or not because KBC itself doesn’t call people directly,” Mitrabh’s father Raj Guha told TimesofIndia.com, recalling the episode last year. “Someone contacted him via Instagram and asked, ‘Are you interested in coming to KBC?'” In 2025, when the show celebrated its silver jubilee, producers were looking for under-25 hits. While India’s top IITs and IIMs nominated their brightest students, a few spots were reserved for exceptional performers outside academia. The then 23-year-old Guha, already one of the leading chess players in the country, found himself among the chosen few.“He thought, ‘Okay, I’ll come.’ But he asked me, ‘Can I do it? They’re going to ask questions,” his father said. “They had a lot of conversations on the phone and finally they told him, ‘No, you’re perfect. Come on. We’ll take you’.” However, this experience was unlike anything he had encountered on the chessboard. “It was a really unique experience. Four or five full days of shooting and getting an opportunity to play in front of Amitabh Bachchan was very special. Honestly, it was quite surprising that I got such an opportunity directly,” said Mitrabha, who is currently in Italy as the coach of the Indian team participating in the 2026 World Youth Chess Championship, during an exclusive interaction for this website.

From Rs 4.8 lakh in KBC to ENC final qualification in India

While the KBC hot seat and the Rs 4.8 lakh he won there remains a prominent part of his journey, Mitrabha, now 24, recently took the chess world by storm with his overboard craftsmanship.GM from West Bengal earned India’s last place in the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC) 2026 chess tournament in Riyadh. The ENC qualification comes on the heels of a gold medal at the Commonwealth Chess Championship, his second after a previous win in the same color in the 2023-24 season.“The Commonwealth gold was very nice,” the player added. “The ENC is obviously a bonus and I’m very happy that I’m playing quite well at the moment. Hopefully I can keep my form and play even better in the future.”His qualifying journey was anything but straightforward. “The Esports tournament was a bit confusing because it’s two events: the Esports World Cup and the Esports Cup of Nations,” he said. “I received a message from Chess.com that this tournament is a regional qualifier for India and that there is only one slot available. So I decided to play and luckily I won the first qualifier.”Guha dominated the nine-round Swiss tournament with 7.5 points and remained unbeaten before going through the knockout stages to become India’s second representative alongside Nihal Sarin, who had already secured a direct invite through the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) standings.

When Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua changed his mind

Guha’s chess journey started in Calcutta when he was barely three and a half years old. “At the time, the minimum age to enter the academy was six,” his father recalled.“We called Dibyendu Baru’s academy and said my son knows all the moves. They told us to come back when he was six. I said, ‘Just take one look at him. If you don’t want to take him, that’s fine.'”

Mitrabha Guha (special arrangement)

When CEO Barua saw the child effortlessly explain the moves, he changed his mind. “He (Barua) said: ‘I see he already knows everything, even though he is three and a half years old. I will take him.’ And so the journey began,” added Father Raj.At the age of six, Guha was ready for his first international engagement, an under-8 tournament in Vietnam. “At that time, it was unimaginable to send a six-year-old child abroad,” his father said. “His mother started crying. But Mitrabha himself acted as if nothing had happened. In fact he was wiping the tears from his mother’s eyes.”

Middle class gambling

Playing chess at an elite level required more than just skill. The Guha family got used to this harsh truth every day. “Our financial situation was not very strong,” admitted his father, a civil servant, “chess required a lot of money.”The struggle continued for years.“In Calcutta there is virtually no sponsorship and no government support, almost none. I had to cover all the expenses, be it playing tournaments in Europe or training, from my own prize money,” he claimed.

Mitrabha received the National Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Government of India in 2013

“Financial problems were something I faced from a very young age and I continued with it until 2019 when I became an international champion,” said 2001-born Mitrabha.His father described those years as “incredibly difficult”. “From the age of four to eighteen, it was extremely difficult for a middle-class family,” he said. “There’s no guarantee in this sport. You can run from four to eighteen and you still never know if you’re going to be an IM or a GM.”

A turning point

Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a turning point. “During Covid, the number of online chess tournaments has increased significantly,” the grandmaster said, suggesting that winning more tournaments would bring more rewards, which helped Mitrabh. “That helped me financially and I haven’t had these problems since.”A big part of GM’s rise was his mother Sujata Guha, who accompanied him to tournaments across the country and abroad during his formative years. Since his father was tied up with the duties of a government employee, it was Sujata who traveled almost constantly with the young chess player until he was 18 years old. Mitrabha received his Grandmaster title as early as 2022.

Mitrabha’s mother Sujata Guha and father Raj Guha (Screengrabs)

Off the board, Mitrabha is currently pursuing her MBA. “We never neglected our studies,” his father said. “If things don’t work out, you end up having to look for a job.”Today, with financial uncertainty largely behind him and invitations pouring in from tournaments around the world, Guha is focused on the game that defined his life. “Acting is his life,” his father said. “Training is not very important for him at the moment. Maybe in four or five years he will think about it, but now he is fully focused on playing.”READ ALSO: R Praggnanandhaa Exclusive Interview: “Winning Against Magnus Carlsen Is Something I’ve Always Wanted”Titans from around the world such as Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura will arrive in Riyadh to compete in the Esports Nations Cup later this year in November. The Calcutta Grandmaster will be one of them, and it’s exactly where he’s always thrived, on the hot seat.