Mighty Indians at the World Youth 2015!

The World Youth Championships 2015 were held in Porto Carras, Halkidikki in Greece, from the 25^th of October to 6^th of November 2015. The 1596 participants came from 91 countries to take part in this unique event, where twelve age category tournaments, ranging from U8 to U18, in the open and girls section took place. In all 36 medals were at stake.

The above table tells you the tale of how brutal India’s domination was at this meet. It won a total of five gold medals, while no other country managed to get more than one. In the World Youth 2014 India was the most successful country with six medals (two golds, two silvers and two bronze medals). This year they bettered their tally by taking home eleven!

Fifty Indian players went to Greece to participate in various age categories. This is not much if you consider that USA sent 129 players and Russia had 70. In one of the articles written by Arvind Aaron for the All India Chess Federation website he mentions that the total rating points gained by the Indians from the World Youth 2015 is a whopping 2629 Elo points! In this report we try to acquaint you with these eleven rising stars of Indian chess.

M. Mahalakshmi (2042), Gold in Under-18 girls

“When I saw the players list before the tournament I just took this event as an opportunity to increase my rating. I didn’t think about winning the title, because I didn’t want to put pressure on myself.  As my coach GM R. B. Ramesh usually says:  ‘Don’t play for result, just play good games.’ I followed this piece of advice and result is there to be seen!” The 17-year-old started as the 32^nd seed, and in the process of winning the gold medal she gained 209 Elo points, and also became a WIM. “Before this tournament we had a ten-day camp at the Chess Gurukul [the academy of GM R.B. Ramesh] and I think that was the turning point. I came to know the mistakes I was making, and learned many other things. This camp not only helped me to prepare for the event, I am sure it will be useful in the future too.”

After Mahalakshmi won the gold medal Vishy Anand tweeted: “Congrats to Mahalakshmi, U18 champion. I have known her for ten years. Her story is of true dedication. Coming from a very simple family, she constantly works hard at improving her game. She is the poster girl for India's Gen-next of chess champions. This is the big leap for bigger titles. A quiet girl with few words, she let her moves take her to the top. Congrats to R.B. Ramesh for being the pillar.” Mahalakshmi was extremely happy to read this. “I am very thankful to Anand Sir and Aruna Madam. They helped me to get sponsorships.” So what’s next on the agenda for Mahalakshmi? “My short term plan is to become a WGM as soon as I can, and the long term one is to achieve the full-fledged GM title.”

Mahalakshmi scored 9.0/11 and won the title with a round to spare. Here’s her favourite game from the tournament, with annotations by her:

Bharath Subramaniyam (1602), Gold in Under-8

The little boy from Chennai, Bharath Subramaniyam, won the gold medal in the U8 section. Just like in the girls’ U18, Bharath’s main competition came from a fellow Indian Dev Shah. In their personal encounter Bharath managed to beat Dev and claim the gold medal, while Dev had to settle for the silver.

So how does an eight-year-old boy like Bharath work, in order to get better at the game? “I am being coached by GM R.B. Ramesh and WGM Aarthie Ramesh.  We have regular classes, where I attend them with players who are much higher rated than me.  For example, GM Arvind Chitthambaram is also present at those lectures, and being in the same class as him gives me opportunities to understand how higher rated players think. Other than that there are camps conducted by Ramesh Sir before major events.  I owe a lot to him for the increase in my calculations and speed.  I keep working on the middle game combinations regularly.  Before the round I make it a point to solve tactics to get my mind sharp. Also I work for 3-4 hours during events to prepare openings against a particular opponent by looking at his style of play. On regular school days I work on chess for three hours.”

Bharath’s favourite chess player is Vishy Anand, and his favourite openings are Grand Prix Sicilian with white and the Sveshnikov with black. When asked about his aims in chess the little boy confidently says, “My short term aim is to cross 2100 in a year, and my long term goal is to become a World Champion.”

We have selected two games of Bharath, annotated by the lad himself. Please pay special attention to the insightful statements of this eight-year-old boy who already seems to have a handle on deep Nimzovian principles.

A few words must be said about the silver medal winner Dev Shah. Dev led the tournament with 6.0/6 at the start. However he lost the seventh round to Bharath and the eighth to Lkhagvajamts Ochirbat. The fact that Dev didn’t give up and fought back to win the last three rounds speaks volumes about his fighting spirit and mental strength. The boy hails from one of the most famous cities of India, Mumbai, which hasn’t seen a grandmaster after Pravin Thipsay achieved that title in 1997. The eight-year-old might well be the answer to the GM drought in the city!

Rakshitta Ravi (1516), Gold in under-10 girls

Daughter of IM T.S. Ravi and WIM Sai Meera Ravi, Rakshitta’s story of winning the gold medal was nothing short of unbelievable. She began the tournament with quite some uncertainty. After five rounds she was on 3.0/5, but in the last six games she scored six wins to clinch the gold medal! Did she in her wildest of dreams think that she would win Gold after a 3.0/5 start? “I wasn’t thinking about this. Generally I don’t worry about the outcome of the tournament until it finishes, since my parents always taught me to just focus on the next round game.” The ten-year-old played continuous tournaments in the past six months and worked on chess for six to eight hours for an entire month as preparation for the Under-10 World Youth. “I would like to thank my parents and R.B. Ramesh sir for this title. I practice chess with my mother. My father is mostly busy at the office, but after he returns home sometimes we play lightning games together, and he often gives me positions to solve blindfold.”

Rakshitta, who idolizes Judit Polgar, has quite a unique aim in chess – she would like to become the youngest World Women Champion. Rakshitta’s favourite game from the tournament was the one against Bat-Erdene Munguzul in the last round, which she has annotated and sent to us.

Divya was the defending champion in the under ten category. The girl from Nagpur was leading the event with 5.5/6. But she lost the seventh and eighth rounds. She fought back, won the last three games and claimed the bronze medal. We reported quite extensively on her in our World Youth 2014 report.

R. Vaishali gold medal in Under-14 girls and R. Praggnanandhaa gold in Under-10 boys

Vaishali and Praggnanandhaa are two of the most raw and brilliant talents of Indian chess currently. The siblings are bold, creative, unpredictable, and at the same time extremely hard working. Posed with the problem of their daughter continuously watching the television, Vaishali’s parents decided to enroll her into chess and drawing (arts and painting) classes. While the girl showed no real interest in the latter, the speed with which she learned the chess moves was astonishing. Vaishali picked up the game and kept getting better at it. Seeing her, Praggnanandhaa too got hooked on the 64 squares. These two youngsters are not only one but two-time World Champions already.

Vaishali, with a rating of 2314, started as the top seed in the Girls Under-14 event. She scored eight wins and three draws on her way to winning the medal by a margin of one point over her nearest rivals. In many ways Vaishali’s Gold didn’t come as a surprise – she was the top seed and had already proved her mettle by winning the National Women Challengers 2015, ahead of strong players like IM Tania Sachdev, WGM Mary Ann Gones, WGM Soumya Swaminathan, IM Nisha Mohota, etc. There is no doubt that the 14-year-old will make it big in the years to come. Her favourite from the event was against Akshaya Kalaiyalahan.

The ten-year-old from Chennai started off as the sixth seed in the event. He raced to take the sole lead with 6.5/7, beating the top rated player of the event Javokhir Sindarov on the way. His game against Sindarov perfectly exemplifies his playing style – natural and free flowing.

Although Praggnanandhaa lost his eighth round to Oskar Oglaza, he fought back and won the ninth and the tenth round. A quick draw in the final round clinched the gold medal for him. Seeing the way he is progressing I would strongly recommend chess writers and reporters to learn how to spell his name correctly. We are going to see him go places!

ChessBase has published this in their articles before, but if you haven’t seen it, we must warn you that this video of Vaishali, Praggnanandhaa and their mother, taken by Amruta Mokal at World Juniors 2014 in Pune, is high on the cuteness quotient!

Nihal Sarin, open Under-12, silver medalist

If there was someone who was unlucky to not win the gold medal in the event, it had to be the 11-year-old Nihal Sarin. The lad started as the 28^th seed in the event, but clearly under-rated. In the past few months he had lost a ton of points, and had come down from 2312 to 2096. Nihal lost the third round to a 1956 rated player from Georgia. But after that he picked up pace and beat the top two seeds of the event: Awonder Liang (2365) of USA and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2432) of Uzbekistan in rounds eight and nine respectively. In the end he tied with Mahammad Muradli of Azerbaijan with 9.0/11, but had to settle for the silver due to an inferior tie-break. Nihal has sent us one of his favourite games from the event, annotated in his inimitable style.

Chess Gurukul is a chess academy in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, founded by GM R.B. Ramesh and his wife WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy. One of the most amazing facts is that – all the five Indian gold medalists from the World Youth 2015 are from Chess Gurukul! 

So what’s the secret of creating so many champions at one single place? We caught up with Ramesh and asked him a few questions:

Sagar Shah: How are you able to create so many champions at Chess Gurukul?

1. B. Ramesh: We are lucky in a way to get so many talented kids come to us for chess training. Full credit goes to the parents, who are very supportive, and the kids who are extremely hard working and ambitious. We try to focus on improving their abilities than to straight away go for good results.

SS: Can you tell us what the emphasis is when you work with these talented kids?

RBR: The focus is on the player’s ability to analyze a position and take decisions on their own. Players are encouraged to be more creative and follow their intuition, and at the same time calculate variations, wherever it is required, without being lazy about it. A combination of concrete play and trusting intuition is encouraged.

SS: What do you think should be done so that these talented kids fulfill their potential and become world class players?

RBR: Funds! The lack of this is a key put-off factor for these talented kids. They need to play in International tournaments outside India to get the much needed exposure and keep up the motivation level. The players are talented and hardworking. With proper support a lot more records could be broken.

Check out the Chess Gurukul website and the efforts to fund budding talents

No article about India’s success could be complete without the views of Vishy Anand. We asked the five-time World Champion how he felt about India’s performance at the World Youth 2015, and what these kids require the most, so that we can get another World Champion like him in the country. This is what Anand had to say:

“Of course I am elated about the performance. What I see is gen-next in chess becoming a reality. It was a pleasure to meet these kids. The chess problems they go through are almost a mirror image of what I faced. What can be done is to get them to play abroad more often. For this sponsorship is the key. We are working with many individuals and organizations, like the Rotary Club of Madras, to get money for these kids via crowd funding. It’s a slow but essential process. But I hope the right talent gets to showcase at the right time. Since chess is getting very fast paced, timing is critical in hitting your talent peak.”

Results of all 50 Indian players at the World Youth 2015 on chess-results website

Most of the above pictures have been taken by Reint Dykema