Prague Masters: How Aravindh won his second Super tournament
The 25-year old Indian won the Prague Masters with an unbeaten 6/9, ahead of Praggnanandhaa and Anish Giri
Bengaluru: Roughly a decade ago, a teenage Aravindh Chithambaram was regarded as the most promising young Indian chess player on the horizon. As the years passed, younger, stronger Indian players emerged, and little was heard of Aravindh.
At 25, Aravindh is trying to make up for lost time. On Friday, he won the Prague Masters with an undefeated 6/9 score, three wins and six draws in a tough field. It was only his second classical super-tournament (after Chennai Grand Masters last year) and he has won both.
Going into Friday’s final round, it was between Aravindh and fellow Indian and academy mate, R Praggnanandhaa. Wei Yi had an outside chance to spoil the all-Indian party and make it to the tiebreaks, but that never happened. Giri dismantled Praggnanandhaa and all Aravindh needed was a draw against 16-year-old Turkish prodigy Ediz Gurel to win the title. Aravindh surpassed Viswanathan Anand on the live ratings and is now placed at No 14 with Elo 2743, the fourth-highest ranked Indian after Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa.
Coach RB Ramesh often refers to Aravindh as the most talented player he’s ever coached. A universal player from a young age, Aravindh lost his father when he was three and his mother struggled to fund her son’s chess dream.
In 2014, a crowd-funding initiative managed to raise ₹9 lakhs so Aravindh could travel to tournaments and earn his GM title. While a wave of fresh Indian prodigies, like Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh, took centrestage, Aravindh struggled to deliver on his promise and battled inner demons and confidence issues for a while. His recent results suggest he’s found a way out of the rut and he’s finally realising the potential he has always shown.
Particularly impressive in the tournament was Aravindh’s win with the Black pieces over Dutch GM Anish Giri in Round 7. Giri had drawn six of his previous games and arrived looking for a battle. The Indian found a beautiful knight sacrifice (24…Ng5!!) and followed it up with 25…d4!!, which cleared the diagonal for his bishop and made white’s f4 pawn seem vulnerable.
“I was doing this mind trick while playing Aravindh, because I was in a must-win situation,” Giri told Chessbase India during the live broadcast, “I looked at him and told myself ‘okay I’ve seen you for many years, you’ve been Elo 2650 for many years and that’s how I’m going to treat you, like the old Aravindh’. That’s how I tried to pump myself up. I got completely crushed. Next time I’ll know better.”
