Bengaluru, Sept. 29 -- There's a photograph of Savitha Shri and Gukesh from nine years ago. They stand beside each other, small and serious, holding their national Under-11 trophies, nearly half their size. They had swapped trophies - Open and girls', each clutching the other's - possibly for the photograph. The following year, in 2018, both won world titles in their respective age groups, the Under-12 Open and girls' titles, at the World Cadets Championship in Spain. They went to the same school in Chennai, travelled to chess tournaments together and sometimes returned home with titles from the same event. Back then, they were simply two kids who happened to be very good at chess, with no idea where the game might take them. Years later, o...