13-year-old is taking India's strongest rapid event by storm

by Sagar Shah - 06/08/2017

The top seed is Vidit Gujrathi, then we have Sethuraman, after that Abhijeet Gupta, Deep Sengupta, Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali, the list of super strong GMs playing at the ChessMine Rapid is almost never ending! But guess who is leading the tournament with a score of 6.0/6? 13-year-old Nihal Sarin! The boy from Kerala was on fire at the first day as he showcased some brilliant chess to shoot into joint lead along with G.N. Gopal and Girish Koushik. We have the day one report from India's strongest ever Rapid Rating tournament.

466 players from all over the country are participating. 15 Grand Masters, Two Women Grand Masters, 25 International Masters and three Women International Masters are in the fray to win the ChessMine rapid tournament 2017. This is the strongest ever rapid rated chess tournament that has ever happened on Indian soil.

India number three Vidit Gujrathi, with a rapid rating of 2718 is here

Two Delhi boys and one from Chennai! Sahaj Grover, Commonwealth Champion Abhijeet Gupta and Former Asian Champion S.P. Sethuraman

G.N. Gopal and Deep Sengupta in the centre flanked by Sethuraman and India's top blind player Ashwin Makvana

Two boys who are soon to break into 2600 zone - Aravindh Chithambaram and Karthikeyan Murali

Top players from Maharashtra GM Abhijit Kunte, Abhishek Kelkarm Abhimanyu Puranik and Shardul Gagare.

So many stars, so many top players, so many grandmasters! And who is the one leading the tournament? 13-year-old prodigy Nihal Sarin! The International-Master-in-waiting, Nihal stole the thunder by winning six games out of six rounds to emerge as a joint leader along with G.N. Gopal at the ChessMine Rapid.

6.0/6 - Nihal Sarin! (photo by Lennart Ootes)

Just to give you an idea of how important Nihal is for Indian chess, here's my conversation with top Armenian grandmaster, and Aronian's second Tigran Gharamian that took place today in Belgium.

Author of these lines analyzing a rook ending with top Armenian GM Tigran Gharamian

After analyzing a rook endgame, I was talking with Tigran and telling him about the huge chess boom that is taking place in India. "Who is that young boy in Indian chess that everyone is talking about?" Praggnanandhaa! I replied. "No, the other one," said Tigran. Nihal? "Yes Nihal! I saw him at the Capelle Open in France, and the boy was just playing to beat each and every opponent that he played. He had absolutely no fear! I knew right then that he would be become a big star!" said Gharamian.

When I used to travel to foregin countries a few years ago, everyone used to speak about Anand. People still speak about Vishy. He is the darling of Indian chess. But I would not be exaggerating if i said that Nihal and Pragg get mentioned in a conversation nowadays as much as Anand and Hari, if not more! Truly these boys are gems of Indian chess. We must ensure that we are able to uncover their true potential and help them in every possible way to move towards the World Champion's title.

Coming back to the day one of the ChessMine Rapid tournament in Bangalore.

Mr Gopinath Naidu CG, Propriter, SG Marriage Hall, Seegehalli, Magadi Road and Mrs Sharada Gopinath inaugurated the FIDE Rated tournament by making the first move on the first board.

On a day that witnessed the downfall of most of the top seeds one way or the other, Grandmaster G. N. Gopal was the only one among the top thirty rated to remain unscathed. Gopal, Nihal and local lad Girish Koushik share the lead with six points apiece at the end of the opening day of this Rs. 4,50,000/- prize money tournament.

The star of the day however was Nihal, as the 68th seed in a field of over 450 participants, played his moves in the most outstanding manner and among his victims were Grandmaster RR Laxman, Gahan M.G, Sai Krishna G.V and Deepan Chakkravarthy in the sixth round.

Girish Koushik also showed sublime form and proved why he is hailed as Karnataka's super talent by outwitting grandmaster Deep Sengupta and IM Satyapragyan. G.N.Gopal has been clinical in beating strong rapid players like Nubairshah Sheikh and Abhimanyu Puranik, but his real testwill begin from tomorrow as he takes on Nihal Sarin in the seventh round.

The star attraction top seed Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi started the day on a positive note but could not maintain the same momentum. Ranked in the top fifty in world ranking in Classical chess, Vidit first faced a challenge from Tamilnadu star GM Aravind Chithambaram and drew in the fourth round and then in the sixth lost to Delhi’s Hemant Sharma.

Vidit Gujrathi was not the only one to realise that the faster version of the game carries greater pitfalls. Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta, National blitz champion R R Laxman, GM Sahaj Grover and GM Pravin Thipsay all find themselves in a similar boat on 4.5 points each and are in a must win situation in the remaining games for a podium finish.

With three leaders at the helm and just four rounds remaining, the final day of the rapid on Sunday is expected to be a mouth-watering contest between some of the best players in our country.

Rank after Round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	68	FM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2032	6,0	0,0	22,5	19,5
2	5	GM	Gopal G.N.	IND	2538	6,0	0,0	22,0	18,5
3	34	IM	Girish A. Koushik	IND	2319	6,0	0,0	20,5	17,0
4	35	FM	Rathanvel V S	IND	2319	5,5	0,0	21,0	17,5
5	38	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2296	5,5	0,0	20,5	17,5
6	28		Hemant Sharma (del)	IND	2335	5,5	0,0	20,5	17,0
7	37	IM	Rajesh V A V	IND	2301	5,5	0,0	20,0	16,5
8	13	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2452	5,0	0,0	24,0	21,0
9	7	GM	Sengupta Deep	IND	2529	5,0	0,0	23,5	20,0
10	17	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu	IND	2388	5,0	0,0	23,0	19,0
11	26		Gahan M G	IND	2345	5,0	0,0	22,0	18,0
12	30	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	IND	2331	5,0	0,0	21,5	18,5
13	21	GM	Sriram Jha	IND	2372	5,0	0,0	21,5	17,5
14	27	IM	Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	2343	5,0	0,0	21,0	18,0
15	3	IM	Swayams Mishra	IND	2569	5,0	0,0	21,0	17,5
16	24	FM	Sai Krishna G V	IND	2369	5,0	0,0	21,0	17,5
17	48	IM	Kathmale Sameer	IND	2217	5,0	0,0	21,0	17,0
18	44		Arvind Shastry	IND	2245	5,0	0,0	20,5	17,5
19	40	FM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2269	5,0	0,0	20,5	17,5
20	32	IM	Prasad Devaki V	IND	2327	5,0	0,0	20,5	17,0

Complete ranking list

Round 7 on 2017/08/06 at 10:00am

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	68	FM	Nihal Sarin	2032	6		6	GM	Gopal G.N.	2538	5
2	28		Hemant Sharma (del)	2335	5½		6	IM	Girish A. Koushik	2319	34
3	35	FM	Rathanvel V S	2319	5½		5½	IM	Rajesh V A V	2301	37
4	3	IM	Swayams Mishra	2569	5		5½	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2296	38
5	2	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2600	5		5	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2328	31
6	7	GM	Sengupta Deep	2529	5		5	IM	Prasad Devaki V	2327	32
7	46		Nirmal E P	2238	5		5	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2460	11
8	12	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2454	5		5	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2291	39
9	40	FM	Sadhwani Raunak	2269	5		5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2452	13
10	48	IM	Kathmale Sameer	2217	5		5	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2429	15

Pairing list

A battle that everyone is looking forward to with great interest