Niranjan Navalgund is a chess player, trainer and writer. He is a former National U-17 Chess Champion and a Commonwealth Silver medalist in the U-18 category. He has been conferred with the ‘Indradhanushya’ (2007) ‘, Giants International Award’ (2009), ‘Kreeda Ratna’ Award (2010) and ‘Belgaumite of the year’ Award (2012) for his achievements in the field of Chess. He is a FIDE Master and FIDE Trainer. In addition, he has a Grandmaster norm and an International Master norm to his credit and is inching closer to attaining the title. He loves words and occasionally tries his hand at writing stories and poems. He believes that writing is a beautiful exercise for the soul. Being a bibliophile, he harbours a particular interest in the New Age Philosophy. Unusual stories excite him. He has contributed short stories to several anthologies and written a novella, The Lively Library & An Unlikely Romance, which Readomania published in 2016. He has also written a short film titled 'B-Tweets', which won the Barcelona planet film festival award in the short narration category. He hopes to visit the Panda Zoo someday. Niranjan lives with his family in Belagavi.