How To Be good At Chess: Interview With Caleb Ogunbiyi

On December 30, 2025, a Dentatics Press representative had an interview with Ogunbiyi Caleb, a 300 level dental student, on the topic of chess. The interview began after a 10 minute chess game.

10 minute chess.com game. A humbling experience for DPR. Nuff said.

Dpr - Dentatics Press representative, CO - Caleb Ogunbiyi

DPR : Good afternoon. Can we meet you?

CO : Hi, I’m Caleb Ogunbiyi.

DPR : When did you start playing chess?

CO : It’s been about 3 years or so now

DPR : And what’s your current rating?

CO : 1909. 

DPR : That’s intimidating.

CO : It’s nowhere near impressive.

DPR : Has it been on and off or was it a day in, day out grind to get this good.

CO : Most days of the first year but not so much for the remaining two.

DPR : So did you peak in year 1 and just decide to push no further?

CO : Something like that. I haven’t crossed the 2000 mark since my first year.

DPR : Three years is a long time. Why did you stick with chess that long?

CO : I found it fun and relaxing. And the gloating rights too. My first match was with a friend who I beat. He said he’d beat me back and he did. But I have gone very far since then, he can’t play me now.

DPR : Are you aware of the University of Ibadan chess club? And are you a member.

CO : I am aware. And I’m sort of a member, but not very active.

DPR : How did you learn chess?

CO : Youtube.

DPR : So you never opened a chess textbook?

CO : Nope. Never.

DPR : Have you won prizes at any chess competitions?

CO : There was the dentistry one, where I won silver and the fresher’s competition.

DPR : Do you plan to go for more competitions?

CO : Until recently, no. But I plan to go for more in 2026.

DPR : The Sports secretary in Dentistry plans to make a chess club to bring up chess culture in dentistry. What do you think about that?

CO : I think it’s a good idea. In fact, I think it’s very important. Quite a few of University of Ibadan’s top players are medical students. I know really strong players from Medicine, Engineering, Law, Animal Sciences, but I don’t know anyone I would say is strong in Dentistry. I don’t know many people in dentistry who can beat me. Or rather, I don’t know anyone I would say can really beat me. So I think it’s a great idea. 

DPR : Do you know of Ojo Abimbola, a 600-level dental student? I think she’s really strong.

CO : No. What’s her rating? I feel like strong is relative. A 1000 rated player will consider a 1600 rated player to be strong. So strong is relative. For me though, I like to consider that strong players have a rating of 1699 or more. I don’t know her though.

DPR : Alright. So what advice would you give the sport secretary on his plan?

CO : I think I would advise him to do as many competitions as possible. As I mentioned earlier, chess for me is largely about the bragging rights. I like to be able to say I don’t play games without at least 1 brilliant move, I usually have an accuracy of around 83 in all my games, I like to be able to say I have beaten an International master before. For me, the bragging rights are particularly important. So more competitions where everyone gets to compete would be very important. 

DPR : What’s the chess game you’re most proud of?

CO : My match against an International Master. It was a bullet game and I won.

Bullet game with an international master on Lichess. CO ‘Xanthrons’ played white.

DPR : Thank you very much for your time. One last match?

CO : You’re welcome. Sure

CO played white and won after assassinating all but four pawns and the king.

The interview ended with DPR’s gluteal region handed to him firmly for the second time.