Calvin Chris Biju – A journey in the beautiful game

In this week’s blog, Maidenhead and Birmingham University Club player, Calvin Chris Biju takes us through his chess journey including joining Maidenhead Chess Club, reaching the final of the Club Championship, meeting a former British Prime Minister, playing for his club in the Thames Valley league, taking part in congresses and County events in the South East, playing in the Major Open at the 2024 British Championships in Hull, and playing as Board 1 for Birmingham University.

To say my chess journey began on the wrong foot would be an understatement. In the summer of 2023, the week after GCSEs finished, I went over to the Maidenhead chess club upon the insistence of my parents. After knocking on the wrong door for 30 mins I had resigned myself to go home when a Maidenhead player named Simon showed me the actual entrance to the club. As expected, I got battered by the club’s players but they would always kindly analyse the game afterwards so I could improve. Week after week of relentless losses followed, but I had a burning desire to improve and achieve a title and I could not be shaken.

League chess works in that you have a team of say 4-6 boards and you’re assigned a board where you contest the other teams’ respective board player. So if you were board one you would play the opposing team’s board one and so on. My league career started with a rigorous training arc in the Thames valley Division X designed for newcomers. Despite intense games initially, I had obtained an ECF rating of 1800+ halfway through the season and was perhaps too highly rated to stay in the 4th and 3rd teams so I got promoted to play in Maidenhead’s 2nd.

I can recall that my first 2nd team game ended in a hard fought draw where I came to realise that the relatively comfortable games I had in the lower teams were gone and from this point one slip up could cost the game. As such, I had to adapt my chess training to match this higher level of playing, championing the French and Dutch defences in my repertoire to reflect my unyielding resolve and fighting spirit in cramped positions and abandoning my trademark Sicilian.

With time I was promoted to the first team, following a wave of strong wins in the 2nd team. It was a proud achievement to have entered the 2023 season a newcomer and to have finished the season on the 1st team playing alongside experienced veteran players such as GM Matthew Wadsworth and FM Andrew Smith.

My first classical tournament was the Berks and Bucks tournament where I played in the Reserves section (the lowest one), and I got 2nd place. Little did I know I would be playing in the championship section the following year. Following that first tournament, I was invited to join the Berkshire county chess team by Bracknell’s Gareth Ward. The ensuing chess season saw win after win in both county and club league games with minimal losses.

When the club championship came around, I entered as one of the lowest seeds with a measly 1300 ECF rapid rating but I made it to the finals after scoring upsets against Ishan Wiratunga, who was 400-500 points higher rated. Not to mention I got a photo with Lady May in the Club championship finals, where she made the first move. That iconic photo is currently framed inside Maidenhead Chess Club, and will hopefully stay there as part of my legacy long after I’m gone.

Whilst playing chess, I also undertook the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award in which chess was my chosen skill. I fondly recall that my first FIDE tournament took place the day after my DofE gold expedition, and so I took my chess board and books with me to the Brecon Beacons in Wales. In the end, my chess books and board got soaked from the torrential rain, but I got first place with a perfect 5/5 score in the London Chess League Congress because of the training on my little travel board in the tent late at night and early in the mornings whilst my teammates were asleep.

Despite the meteoric progress I was making, no amount of league games could prepare me for the British Championships in which preparation is vital, as your opponents will look you up once pairings are announced and analyse your strengths and weaknesses to gain an advantage in your game. By this point I had a feeling of invincibility and felt the CM title was within my reach such that I entered the 2024 British Chess Championships Major Open in Hull, alongside the AM Open with a proud 2008 FIDE rating, I came back vowing to never play chess again, following the massacre that had occurred in Hull.

My naivety that I didn’t need preparation to win games cost me some hard, unforgettable losses in the Major Open. Despite these setbacks, that have not fully healed to this day, I have returned to playing league games in the winter of 2025 albeit under the new banner of the University of Birmingham, where I play as the University’s first board, despite being a first-year. I can vividly recall walking into the club and being anointed board one within five minutes thanks to the rating I had built up after all that hard work and dedication previously. The university chess club certainly helped me find good friends including two  people who I’ll be staying in a house with next year and who will be competing with me in the Major Open next year. Chess had certainly made me make a lot of friends as we had something in common to bond over. As for my future plans in chess, I’ll be competing in the 2026 Major Open of the British Chess Championships, so watch this space! 

Overall, my classical rating skyrocketed from about 1450 ECF in Aug 2023 to a peak of 2027 ECF in January 2025. However, I would not have seen such improvements in chess ability were it not for the encouragement from the Maidenhead Chess community, most notably Steve James who would mentor my games and reprimand me for every minor inaccuracy let alone blunders, alongside other notable club members like Simon Foster, Nigel Smith, Yuri Krylov and Keith Trower who convinced me to keep playing chess once it became apparent that a CM title was not immediately within range.

One piece of advice I would give is that if you play because you love the game, you’ll be rewarded more than the people who only care about winning games. As Beth Harmon from Queen’s Gambit put it, “Chess isn’t always competitive. Chess can also be beautiful.”