Yeah, I’m talking about the same Inner Engineering program that players like R. Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi have also done.

I started playing chess back in 8th grade, just for fun. Like most beginners, I improved quickly at first and touched around 800 Elo pretty fast. And that’s where the honeymoon phase ended. After that, it was just frustration after frustration.

There were days I’d lose continuously, get tilted, uninstall Chess.com in anger… then reinstall it again a few days later hoping “this time it’ll be different.” Somehow, after a lot of ups and downs, I crawled my way to 1000 Elo, then 1100. But beyond that, I felt totally stuck. No progress, no motivation. Eventually, I deleted the app and didn’t even touch chess for years.

Around that same time, I was also dealing with a rough phase in my personal life. Out of nowhere, I ended up enrolling in the Inner Engineering program and started practicing Shambhavi Mahamudra. Honestly, I didn’t expect anything dramatic from it at first. But slowly, things started shifting. I became calmer, lighter, and my mind felt… clearer. Like there was less noise inside my head.

Fast forward a few months — I reinstalled Chess.com only because I had to practice for my inter-house chess competition. I wasn’t expecting much. But the moment I started playing again, I realized something had changed.

This time:

I wasn’t overthinking every move

I could spot patterns much faster

I remembered previous positions more clearly

I actually had some sort of plan while playing


And the biggest change? Losing no longer destroyed my mood. Earlier, one bad game would ruin my entire day. Now, even when I lost, I just saw it as feedback and moved on.

My rating shot up to 1300 pretty quickly. Later, I even got the chance to represent my school at inter-school tournaments. Right now, my rating is somewhere around 1700, and honestly, sometimes I still can’t believe this is the same person who rage-quit at 1100.

For me, Inner Engineering didn’t magically make me a chess genius — but it definitely changed how I handle pressure, focus, failure, and clarity of thought. And when I later found out that players like Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi follow inner practices too, it kind of made everything click for me.

Just felt like sharing this here.
If you’re someone who struggles with tilt, stress, or mental blocks in chess (or life in general), maybe this could help you too.

Wishing you all good games and better mindsets ♟️

How Inner Engineering unexpectedly changed my chess journey (800 → ~1700)