Why I'm building Gambits

I’ve played chess for most of my life, from casual games to proper tournaments, and won a few along the way. I still love it. But lately I’ve noticed I’m losing interest, and it isn’t because I’ve stopped caring about the game.

Part of it is time. Most of it is a plateau.

Somewhere between 1600 and 1800, I stopped getting better. It’s a common place to stall. Playing a lot carries you that far, but getting past it, and especially to 2000, usually takes real training: ideally a coach, or at least opponents who show you your own mistakes from a fresh angle.

The players I learned the most from were the ones who grew up without engines. Their chess felt different from anyone else’s, and it made me stop and think. Players like that are hard to find now. Even when you do find them, hours-long sessions don’t fit into a life spent building ventures.

So I kept playing hope chess: making a move and hoping the other person doesn’t see the reply. It keeps you exactly where you are. I’ve lived in that plateau, and I’m still in it. Gambits started there, from a game I love and a problem I have myself.

The other reason

That isn’t the whole story. Since my teens I’ve wanted to build companies. I watched the startup boom in India after the pandemic from the outside, and the pull only got stronger as I grew up. Where I want to end up is deep tech, most likely with space somewhere in it. The roads fewer people take are where I’ve always found myself drifting anyway.

But walking into that kind of venture with no experience of running a company and no network would be reckless, even by my standards. I needed somewhere to start: a real product, real users, a small team, and a little income on top.

Gambits was the obvious choice. It’s far from where I’m heading, and honestly it began as a shared hobby project with a friend, built as much for the experience as for chess. That doesn’t lower the bar. It’s the first thing I’m putting my name to as a founder, so it has to be good.

The gap

Even as a starting project, the gap turned out to be real. Training built from your own games barely exists; most of what’s out there hands everyone the same puzzles. The early version of Gambits already does what I couldn’t find anywhere else. It reads your games, finds the mistakes you keep repeating, and builds a short daily practice around them, and only your real games move your Skill Map.

It isn’t where I want it yet. The public preview is deliberately simple, and a lot more is being tried behind it. We’re focused on getting the quality right and letting the rest follow.

My expectations are modest. If Gambits ends up paying for itself and a little more, I’ll call it a success. What I’m really after is the experience of building something people use, and that has already started.

Gambits launches in November.