Chess Titbits
1. 64 Indian GMs in 32 years
On 18th of July Indian chess got its 64th GM. A very symbolic day as the chess board is made up of 64 squares. In 1980s, a genius named Vishy Anand arrived on the chess scene and changed the landscape of Indian chess forever. Anand became a GM in 1987 and 32 years later Prithu Gupta from Delhi became the 64th GM in July 2019.
The 64 GMs are:
| S.No | Name | State | Age (2019) | GM year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vishy Anand, 1988 | Tamil Nadu | 49 | 1987 |
| 2 | Dibyendu Barua, 1991 | West Bengal | 53 | 1991 |
| 3 | Pravin Thipsay, 1997 | Maharashtra | 60 | 1997 |
| 4 | Abhijit Kunte, 2000 | Maharashtra | 42 | 2000 |
| 5 | Sasikiran Krishnan, 2000 | Tamil Nadu | 38 | 2000 |
| 6 | P. Harikrishna, 2001 | Andhra Pradesh | 33 | 2001 |
| 7 | Ms. Koneru Humpy, 2002 | Andhra Pradesh | 32 | 2002 |
| 8 | Surya Sekhar Ganguly, 2003 | West Bengal | 36 | 2003 |
| 9 | Sandipan Chanda, 2003 | West Bengal | 36 | 2003 |
| 10 | R.B. Ramesh, 2004 | Tamil Nadu | 43 | 2004 |
| 11 | Tejas Bakre, 2004 | Gujarat | 38 | 2004 |
| 12 | Magesh Chandran, 2006 | Tamil Nadu | 36 | 2006 |
| 13 | Deepan Chakkravarthy, 2006 | Tamil Nadu | 32 | 2006 |
| 14 | Neelotpal Das, 2006 | West Bengal | 37 | 2006 |
| 15 | Parimarjan Negi, 2006 | Delhi | 26 | 2006 |
| 16 | GN Gopal, 2007 | Kerala | 30 | 2007 |
| 17 | Abhijeet Gupta, 2008 | Rajasthan | 30 | 2008 |
| 18 | S Arun Prasad | Tamil Nadu | 31 | 2008 |
| 19 | S Kidambi | Tamil Nadu | 37 | 2009 |
| 20 | R R Laxman | Tamil Nadu | 36 | 2009 |
| 21 | Sriram Jha | Delhi | 43 | 2010 |
| 22 | Deep Sengupta | West Bengal | 31 | 2010 |
| 23 | B Adhiban | Tamil Nadu | 27 | 2010 |
| 24 | S P Sethuraman | Tamil Nadu | 26 | 2011 |
| 25 | Ms. Harika D | Andhra Pradesh | 28 | 2011 |
| 26 | Lalith Babu M R | Andhra Pradesh | 26 | 2012 |
| 27 | Vaibhav Suri | Delhi | 22 | 2012 |
| 28 | M R Venkatesh | Tamil Nadu | 34 | 2012 |
| 29 | Sahaj Grover | Delhi | 24 | 2012 |
| 30 | Vidit Gujrathi | Maharashtra | 25 | 2013 |
| 31 | Shyam Sundar M | Tamil Nadu | 27 | 2013 |
| 32 | Akhshayraj Kore | Maharashtra | 31 | 2013 |
| 33 | Vishnu Prasanna | Tamil Nadu | 30 | 2013 |
| 34 | Debashis Das | Odisha | 26 | 2013 |
| 35 | Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury | West Bengal | 37 | 2013 |
| 36 | Ankit Rajpara | Gujarat | 25 | 2014 |
| 37 | Aravindh Chithambaram | Tamil Nadu | 20 | 2015 |
| 38 | Karthikeyan Murali | Tamil Nadu | 20 | 2015 |
| 39 | Ashwin Jayaram | Tamil Nadu | 29 | 2015 |
| 40 | Swapnil S Dhopade | Maharashtra | 29 | 2015 |
| 41 | S L Narayanan | Kerala | 21 | 2015 |
| 42 | Shardul Gagare | Maharashtra | 22 | 2016 |
| 43 | Diptayan Ghosh | West Bengal | 21 | 2016 |
| 44 | Priyadharshan K | Tamil Nadu | 26 | 2016 |
| 45 | Aryan Chopra | Delhi | 18 | 2017 |
| 46 | Srinath Narayanan | Tamil Nadu | 25 | 2017 |
| 47 | Himanshu Sharma | Haryana | 36 | 2017 |
| 48 | Anurag Mhamal | Goa | 24 | 2017 |
| 49 | Abhimanyu Puranik | Maharashtra | 19 | 2017 |
| 50 | Thejkumar M S | Karnataka | 38 | 2017 |
| 51 | Saptarshi Roy | West Bengal | 33 | 2018 |
| 52 | R Praggnanandhaa | Tamil Nadu | 14 | 2018 |
| 53 | Nihal Sarin | Kerala | 15 | 2018 |
| 54 | Erigaisi Arjun | Telangana | 16 | 2018 |
| 55 | Karthik Venkataraman | Telangana | 20 | 2018 |
| 56 | Harsha Bharathakoti | Telangana | 19 | 2018 |
| 57 | P Karthikeyan | Tamil Nadu | 29 | 2018 |
| 58 | Stany G A | Karnataka | 26 | 2018 |
| 59 | Visakh N R | Tamil Nadu | 20 | 2019 |
| 60 | Gukesh D | Tamil Nadu | 13 | 2019 |
| 61 | P Iniyan | Tamil Nadu | 17 | 2019 |
| 62 | Swayams Mishra | Odisha | 27 | 2019 |
| 63 | Girish Koushik | Karnataka | 22 | 2019 |
| 64 | Prithu Gupta | Delhi | 15 | 2019 |
2. Nasir Ali is no more!
A legend in Indian chess 82-year-old Nasir Ali Syed passed away on the 29th May 2018. The young generation might not know him so well, but those who met him were highly impressed. At the age of 31, Nasir Ali created huge ripples on the Indian chess scene by winning the National Championship of India in 1967. And this was ahead of some of the biggest names of that time including Manuel Aaron. In 1967, the National B and National A, both of the events were held in Pune and Nasir Ali had created some kind of a record by winning both of them!
In 2016, ChessBase India had published an article entitled 80-year-old Nasir Ali Syed leads in Udaipur. This octogenarian was still going strong and was leading the event with 6.5/7 ahead of four International Masters! For those who didn't know Nasir Ali, this news came as a big surprise. For those who knew him well, smiled that he still had the old magic with him! After all Nasir Ali had beaten some of the greatest Indian chess players in his time.
Nasir Ali Syed was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His acquaintance with chess happened due to pure serendipity. Studying for his graduation exams, Nasir Ali used to go his friend's house. That friend knew how to play chess. One fine day he taught Nasir Ali the rules of the game and started playing with him. The duo played hundreds of games with each other and every single time the friend, who was better than Nasir Ali, would beat him. "You will never be able to beat me!" : these words said by his friend stung Nasir and he decided to work harder on his game. He tried to find new playing partners and took part in any chess event that was happening in Kanpur. Naturally his chess strength began to grow. Next time when Nasir Ali met his friend, he beat him square and fair. The satisfaction was immense and with it came the thought, If I could beat him, I can beat anyone! Nasir Ali believed in his abilities, worked hard, won many tournaments in India and became the National Champion in 1967. Nasir Ali's highest Elo rating was 2385. He couldn't achieve his IM title because of the lack of opportunities.
"He (Nasir Ali) was born in the wrong place! What else to say! Otherwise a talent like Nasir Ali should definitely have become an IM. Although Kanpur was the center of chess in north India, there was absolutely no one who backed Nasir Ali. For example when I became a strong player, the second secretary of AICF S.K. Narasimhan supported me by bringing the Asian Zonals to Madras, where I proved myself and became an International Master. A player like Nasir Ali needed such opportunities to prove himself. In fact when working on the book Indian Chess History I realized that there were so many players in Indian chess like Ramdas Gupta, R.B. Sapre, Pabitra Mohanty, A.K. Sinha and many others who had so much talent but couldn't become IMs because of lack of opportunities." IM Manuel Aaron
What can we learn from a legend like Nasir Ali:
Nasir Ali started playing chess somewhere around the age of 19 years! By the age of 31 he was already the best player in India winning both the National “B” and National “A” championships in 1967 in Pune - a record which no Indian has been able to eclipse! He had absolutely no coach, or books to learn chess from. He just learned the tricks by playing a lot of games and then analyzing them, trying to find where he was going wrong. He reached a career high rating of 2385 and beat many grandmasters and top players of India and the world. He played chess until the last years of his life and loved the game immensely.
Nasir Ali taught us the following:
- There is no age limit to excel at anything. If you put your mind and efforts to it, you can succeed in just about anything that you want to at any age.
- Analyzing your games is very important. More than books or coaches, if you can try to analyze your games, understand your weaknesses and improve upon them, then you can almost certainly become a stronger chess player.
- When chess becomes your life, money, Elo, titles, everything is secondary. You just enjoy the struggle of the game and your entire life revolves around the 64 squares and 32 pieces.
- It is more important to be a good human being than a good chess player. Nasir Ali was kind, soft spoken, humble and spoke with just about everyone who would like to learn a thing or two from him.
Nasir Ali Syed, a great fighter of Indian chess, is no more, but his moves, his games and his legacy live on!
(Source: Chessbase India)
3. Indian GM’s on the rise
Indian GM’s are doing extremely well overseas. Here are some of the notable tournaments won by our Grandmasters:
- Commonwealth Cup- Abhijeet Gupta
- Xtracon GM tmt- Praggnanandhaa R
- Belt & Road Open - S S Ganguly
- Biel GM tournament - Vidit Gujrathi
4. Humpy wins Women’s Grand Prix 2019
In one of the finest moments for Indian women’s chess, Koneru Humpy, the former World Championship runner up won the first leg of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series at the Russian village of Skolkovo on 29-Sep-19. She needed just a draw in the final round against the reigning World champion and top seed Ju Wenjun of China which she got comfortably while remaining unbeaten in the tournament. Ju and Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia tied at second place. Goryachkina of Russia who won the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2019 comfortably is the current challenger for the Women's World Chess Championship 2019 match against Ju Wenjun which starts later in the year.
This is Humpy’s finest performance since she returned to the chessboard last year, after being away for over 15 months following childbirth. Humpy was once considered the third strongest female chess player of all time, behind Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan, but dropped a bit in the last few years.
This was the first of the four Grand Prix tournaments. The top two finishers in the series will qualify for the 2021 Candidates match, the winner of which will become challenger to the winner between Ju and Goryachkina in 2019.
5. Other Elite International GM tournaments won by various top Grandmasters