Deepak Hinge didn’t tell his nine-year-old daughter Anvi that he was hoping for the impossible. When they boarded the flight to Alicante, Spain last month, he believed that the Women’s Candidates Masters (WCM) title for Anvi was still a few flights away. Maybe a few months, or even a few years. The shared dream of making her the youngest WCM player ever felt just that: a dream.
At the time, Anvi’s Elo rating was hovering around the early 1600s, nearly 200 points below the threshold required for the WCM title. Deepak’s judgment was based on realism. He was already proud of the progress his young daughter had made in her still-budding chess career and the trip to Spain’s southeastern port city felt just like another tournament for them.
But over the next nine days, Anvi turned uncertainty into triumph. Punching above her weight and her age, she played some of her best chess, recording six wins and amassing 6.5 points from nine rounds. That performance earned her a staggering 175 rating points, enough to breach the 1800 ceiling.
The Indian finished joint-fourth, the highest-rated Indian at the event, and champion in the women’s category. She had accomplished what no girl her age had done before, to become the world’s youngest WCM. Then she became the world number one in the FIDE Under-9 girls’ category. And right now, she is the only WCM title-holder in her age category. All of this, before her age gets into double figures.
Anvi’s resume already looks impressive. A former girls’ state champion in the Under-7 category and a bronze medallist at the National Championships, the girl from Pimpri-Chinchwad, near Pune, has accumulated numerous accolades on the world stage.
She won silver in the Under-8 category at the 2025 FIDE World Cadet & Youth Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships in Greece. She was also a runner-up in the same category at the 2025 Commonwealth Championship in Malaysia.
But her breakthrough came in Tajikistan, where she won two gold and four silver medals at the 2025 Western Asian Youth Chess Championships, helping India secure a total of 31 medals.
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Anvi Hinge started her journey at Tactical Moves Chess Academy in Pune. (Photo by special arrangement)
Family’s role crucial
Anvi’s interest in chess came from her older brother Aarush. It was then that her father, a software engineer, taught her the basics of the game. When she was four and a half, she was enrolled at a local academy.
Having started her journey at Tactical Moves Chess Academy in Pune, Anvi’s rise soon saw her move to a more formal and serious set-up. Her current trainers include Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay and Siddhant Gaikwad, a FIDE Master from Pune.
Deepak says Chola Chess Academy has helped Anvi grow from strength to strength. A brainchild of Dronacharya Awardee RB Ramesh, it provides free in-person and virtual coaching and mentorship to some of the brightest chess talents in India. They have also helped her bag another scholarship through which she gets coached by top trainers four times a week. Those include grandmasters such as Kidambi Sundararajan, Debashis Das and Thej Kumar MS.
For Anvi, a short trip from Pune to Mumbai changed her life. Deepak says when they received an invitation to watch a round of the Global Chess League and meet all the players, something shifted within Anvi.
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“She got really inspired looking at all these players, as they are so humble and so approachable, and the way they were treating others. Especially (D) Gukesh. He is really nice. We have met him a couple of times, and the way he treats the kids is very empathetic,” Deepak told The Indian Express.
Right now, Anvi Hinge is the only Women’s Candidates Master title holder in her age category. (Photo by special arrangement)
“After looking at all the players, the likes of Gukesh and Viswanathan Anand sir, the whole atmosphere hit her. From that, she got inspiration. Since then, she talks about how she also wants to become like them.”
While Deepak describes himself and his wife merely as facilitators of their daughter’s needs as long as her interest in the game lasts, his role is far more significant in Anvi’s progress. He reads 15 to 20 pages of a book to Anvi every night without fail as part of their bedtime routine. The stories often come from the lives of luminaries like Chhatrapati Shivaji, Bajirao Peshwa and Tarabai Shinde.
For Deepak, it is not just about helping his daughter know her culture and history. He says that subconsciously, he tries to instil the values of these heroes in her. He wants his daughter to navigate through the difficulties of her own life.
