Sultan Khan of Sargodha: Servant of a nobleman who became a chess champion in the British Empire

Sultan Khan became the British Chess Champion in 1932. Can be seen here with his trophy

Govind Dina Nath Madgaonkar, a 19-year-old young Indian player who participated in the 1890 chess competition in Oxford, stunned the British with his game.

Experts saw a great champion in Madgaonkar, but within two years he left chess and joined the Indian Civil Service.It is quite possible that if Madgaonkar had not stopped playing, he would have been the first Indian chess player to make his mark at the international level.

But forty years later in the year 1931, when he was retiring from the post of Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, he might not have even known that a young player of Indian origin who happened to be visiting England in those days would become one of the world's most famous chess players. Who is making two four from the defeat.

Had Madgaonkar heard the name of Mir Sultan Khan, he might never have regretted giving up his chess. Chess was considered an expensive hobby in those days and was beyond the reach of the common man. Mir Sultan Khan's father, Mian Nizamuddin, who was born in 1903 near Sargodha in Punjab, was a great chess player.

He taught all his nine sons to play chess from an early age. When he was sixteen and seventeen years old, Mir Sultan Khan started going to Sargodha from his village Tuanan every day where he used to play chess in the gatherings of the nobles. At the age of 21, he was considered the champion of his province.

The news of Sultan's exploits also reached the ears of Umar Hayat Khan, the owner of the neighboring state of Kalra, who was himself a great chess enthusiast and fan.

Umar Hayat Khan, one of the largest landowners of Punjab, had the support of the British and was elected a member of the Council of State of India. Umar Hayat Khan, who served as a Major General in the British Army, was also honored with the title of Sir by the British Government.