14-year-old Sahithi Varshini gains 242 Elo points, becomes a WIM, reaches India no.12

Sahithi Varshini embodies with her play the spirit of Mikhail Tal

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and I needed something to entertain myself. I switched on Netflix, and there were no real interesting new movies that had come up! Amruta was busy with her work, so I also decided to finish my list of pending tasks. One of them that had been in my to-do list was "Analyze the games of Sahithi Varshini." Sahithi, born in 2007 (27th April), recently became India's latest WIM. And with a massive rating gain, the 14-year-old had very nearly entered the top 10 women player's of India rating list as on 1st of April 2022.

A few hours into analyzing Sahithi's games I came to the conclusion, that this was the best way in which I could have utilized my time. Her games had more spice than of the Bollywood movies could offer, more thrill than any of Hollywood thrillers and more action than of the western soap operas. I will share with you my findings and annotations of Sahithi's games in a bit. But first let me tell you about her life story - it is just as interesting!

Lokeswar Moogi Rao (or Lokesh as he is called) loves chess. He was part of his chess team at HPCL and has represented his company at the PSPB tournaments. He wanted his craze for the game to be picked up by his daughters as well. So he decided to teach his elder daughter Falguni about chess. While Falguni did learn chess, it was his younger one Sahithi who developed a keen interest. Sahithi's love for the game coupled with Lokesh's training helped her move up the ranks pretty quickly. Sahithi got her rating at the age of 8 years in 2015 and she was rated around 1200. The girl gained 852 Elo points in 11 tournaments and from 1204 she raised her Elo to 2056! It was 2019 and Sahithi was in good form. Until then she had become the Asian Champion in under-10 and under-12 girls. She had also won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Championships in her age category and till date had won 9 medals for India. Seeing her talent and dedication for chess, Lokesh had planned more events for Sahithi. But then something truly unfathomable happened. The world was struck by Covid-19 pandemic and for two years Sahithi could not take part in any tournaments. This was quite a frustrating period and the lack of tournaments did affect Sahithi's motivation to work on chess.

When things started to open up in the second half of 2021, Lokesh took one of the boldest decisions of his life. He asked his bosses at HPCL to give him a year's leave. He couldn't stand the thought of his daughter's chess career slowing down and he wanted to use this period of one year to the maximum. HPCL agreed. They would not pay Lokesh his salary, but when he came back after a year his job would still be intact. While this was taken care off, the family needed funds to travel for a year. That is when Lokesh took the next brave step. He took a loan of Rs.14 lakhs (around US$18,500) so that there would be no shortage of finances. And finally, he convinced his wife and elder daughter to join them as well, so that the family could not only spend time together but also learn through travelling.

Lokesh's logic was simple - "I can travel with Sahithi this year to tournaments. Sooner or later I will have to go back to my job. That is where my wife and elder daughter Falguni should also know what it takes to be with Sahithi during her tournaments. Then they can assist her in future." With all the things in place it was time for the trip to begin. At first Sahithi was a bit rusty. She was showing her aggressive free-flowing play in many of the games. But lack of practice meant that she was unable to convert the positions that were favourable for her. How did Lokesh as a parent and a coach approach this situation? "As I have played in PSPB for a few years I understand the pain and gains of player. I have immense confidence on Sahithi. I believe in her style of play and my job is to make her a stronger player and keep pushing her in the right direction. It was only a matter of time before she hit top form."

Priyanka Nutakki vs Sahithi Varshini, Chessmood Open 2021

Sahithi played the stunning move Ndf4! Her point was that exf4 is met with Bxf3 spoiling White's kingside structure. Black's other knight would then jump to f4. The queen would be transferred via d8 to g5 and the rook is ready to enter the game with Rf6-g6. The piece sacrifice is absolutely correct and Priyanka decided to decline it by taking the bishop on b7. But after Nxb7 Nxd3, it was Black who had the better position.

Of course, Sahithi sacrificed an exchange with ...Rxf3! Although the position might not be winning, it put White in some difficulty to find the only defensive moves. In the end the game was drawn.

Padmini Rout vs Sahithi Varshini, Chessmood Open 2021

Padmini has just played her queen to c7. Sahithi not caring much for material, simply played her rook to b4! A very interesting exchange sacrifice that led to a winning position for her. But she blundered in the end to allow Padmini to wriggle out with a draw.

Sahithi Varshini vs Nisha Mohota, Chessmood Open 2021

Although Sahithi was completely lost on several occasions in the game, the mess she had created became too much for Nisha to handle! In the end White won.

The first Saturday IM norm event (6-16 November) proved to be a great one for Sahithi as she scored her maiden WIM norm. She managed to score 5.5 points out of 9 games and also beat some very strong players in her sizzling aggressive style.

Sahithi Varshini vs Chakravarthi Reddy, First Saturday IM November 2021

Sahithi had landed in a lost position right out of the opening. However, her opponent couldn't take advantage of her inaccurate moves and this position was reached. Here she finished off her opponent with the straightforward Rxf6+! after gxf6 Qh7+ with g6 pawn falling, White was the first one to reach Black's king.

Sahithi Varshini vs Arnim Bossy, First Saturday IM November 2021

As expected Sahithi sacrificed an exchange with Rxf6! But this was not the final exchange sacrifice of the game. After exf6 Qh6 Qe7 Qxg6+ Kh8 Qh6+ Kg8, the following position was reached:

Sahithi sacrificed her rook with Rd5! The idea is to put the rook on h5 and if Bxd5 then Nxd5 and f6 pawn falls with a check. White wins!

How did Sahithi develop this sort of attacking play? Her father explains, "She tries to win always. This attitude makes her create tactical zones. If she finds superior piece activity, she is not afraid to sacrifice her pieces. She takes her wins and losses in the right spirit. That really helps her to play fearlessly. Since childhood, she has studied a lot of classics. Bobby Fischer and Akiba Rubinstein are her favourite players. She has also solved a lot of tactical exercises and read many middlegame books. Some of them are - Learn from the legends by Mihail Marin, several of Dvoretsky's books, and Jacob Aagaard's Strategic play really helped her."

Unfortunately, Jacob Aagaard's Strategic Play is currently out of stock.

In the month of December, Sahithi took a break from playing chess and visited the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi in Dubai. She was part of the FIDE Chessable academy training camp where she was trained by Vishy Anand and Jan Krzysztof Duda.

As 2022 began, Sahithi had returned back to the grind. She was playing at the Vezerkepzo Christmas GM tournament. Although she couldn't get her norm there. She played a very interesting game against fellow Indian talent Aditya Vikram Paul. What I loved about the game was the fact that Sahithi slid into a worse position out of the opening (something that happens to her quite often!) and then she wriggled out of the mess by creative and imaginative attacking play.

Sahithi Varshini vs Aditya Vikram Paul, Vezerkepzo Christmas GM

Black has outplayed White in this position. The knight is ready to jump to d3, the pawn is coming from b5-b4 and Black is going to be able to open up the queenside. If Sahithi just waits around, she is going to be in big trouble. And so that young girl moved her queen to h5. Then she move her pawn up to g4 and before you knew it, the momentum for the kingside attack was building up. Although the engines can defend such positions with accuracy, for us humans, whenever our king is under attack, we feel uncomfortable. Sahithi used exactly this fact to push her opponent into commit mistakes.

Sahithi looked at the position carefully and realized that gxh6 will be met with g6. While this is an option, this is something that she can do at any point in the game. What is more important is to get more pieces into the attack. And this she did with Kh2! The king moved away to the h-file, making way for the rook to join via g1.

It seems like White's attack has come to a standstill and Black is planning to infiltrate with his rook down the b-file. Sahithi made the quiet little move - Qg3! The queen moves away clearing the square on f3 for her knight, which could then later jump to g5. It's little moves like these where are just so very powerful, that show Sahithi's powerful acumen of attacking play.

Here's another interesting game played by Sahithi:

Sahithi scored her 2nd WIM norm at the GM Mix Third Saturday 233. Although her next tournament was not great from the rating perspective, something very important happened - the youngster scored her first win against a GM.

Sahithi Varshini vs Vladimir Zakhartsov, Third Saturday GM Mix 237

With the black king in the center, Sahithi took no time to strike! f5! It didn't matter to her that the opponent was a GM.

Another pawn was sacrificed with e6! and White had a powerful initiative. Sahithi later on went on to win the game.

Sahithi achieved her third and final WIM norm at the First Saturday IM norm tournament in Budapest, Hungary in March 2022. She managed to start with 3.0/3, and then required just 1.5 points in the remaining 6 rounds to achieve not just her final WIM norm, but also the WIM title.

After winning her WIM title, Sahithi played at the Vezerkepzo IM March and scored her 4th WIM norm and also gained 95 Elo points! Here is her victory of IM To Nhat Minh of Vietnam from that event:

Sahithi Varshni vs To Nhat Minh, Vezerkepzo March

Sahithi moved her knight to g5 and it was all over. The queen is moving to g6 with a mate threatened on g7 as well as h7. The interesting thing about this game is that Sahithi was worse right out of the opening, but once again managed to swindle her opponent in a complex middlegame.

Overview of Sahithi's performance in the last six months

Since Sahithi has left home along with her family in October 2021, she has played in 10 tournaments and overall gained a total of 242 Elo points.

After analyzing so many of Sahithi's games and also doing the above livestream with her I feel that she has an extremely bright future. She will turn 15 in a few days from now and is already rated 2312. But more than ratings and numbers it's the quality of her play, the imagination in her chess and her attacking instincts. These are the qualities which are going to make her a top player in the years to come. Yes, her openings might not be the best. Also her conversion of winning positions needs better technique, but Sahithi is working on these things in her game. We might also get a chance to see her in one of the Indian teams at the Chennai Olympiad 2022.

Related news:

12-year-old Sahithi Varshini gains 852 Elo points in 11 tournaments! @ 23/05/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)