How can chess players ace the multi-format juggle?

Indian Express

2 days ago

Returning to the venue where he has 'bad memories' of losing the World Championship crown to Magnus Carlsen in 2013, for the Chennai Grand Masters, Viswanathan Anand didn't hesitate to throw a punchline from the commercial when asked what D Gukesh had to do. 'Mere paas paanch hai (I've five)' he said pointing to the five world titles. 'It is a good starting point. I think he knows what to do.' But more importantly he had a telling message to pass on—don't rule out any format for the sake of the other.
In the ongoing Chennai Grand Masters, there is Nihal Sarin. For a player who has been so good at speed chess, he has been stagnating in the classical front in the words of his coach Vishnu Prasanna. He arrived in Chennai for the tournament alongside Arjun Erigaisi – whom he defeated on Sunday for the first win of the event – after featuring in the inaugural eSports World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
In a year where the World Cup is lined up, alternating between formats offers its own challenges. That all the top players want to be part of all the formats shows where the sport is heading and how they have to pick and choose tournaments. Despite being a local boy, Gukesh had to skip the tournament that took him to Candidates in 2024 because he had already committed to featuring in one-day, one-off six match Blitz tournament against Jan Krzysztof Duda.
'The simplest way to say it is that they shouldn't rule out any format mentally,' Anand said about switching formats. 'In a sense, you don't probably have good results in all the formats, in all the years but I don't think you are assured of one format either. I mean Gukesh has had a bad classical in Romania for instance. I think when one misfires, you should be able to compete in the other. So, you should try to be competitive in all. Maybe you won't succeed, but it's worth it,' Anand said.
At the Classical event in Bucharest, part of the Grand Chess Tour, Gukesh finished joint sixth, a below par showing for the Indian teen (Compatriot R Praggnanandhaa won the tournament). It just reemphasised how challenging it can be to juggle between formats without enough break in between. But Nihal says all top players have to find a way to get adjusted to playing across formats. 'As of now for sure (playing all). Generally, most top players can adapt to the different time buttons, switching quite fast between. In a way, it is kind of like playing tennis on different surfaces. Just find a way to adapt and try,' Nihal said.
The 21-year-old himself is a case in point. After the eSports event, he is in Chennai, playing the most challenging format for him. At many points during his win over Erigaisi, having lost two previous matches from strong positions, he feared he could repeat the same. Not even a blunder from Erigaisi made it any easier for Nihal.
Nihal wastes no time opens with Knight f3 against Arjun. The crowd holds its breath… what's Arjun cooking in reply? 👀♟@NihalSarin @ArjunErigaisi @chess24com @chesscom_in @QBResearch#QuantboxChennaiGrandMasters #ChennaiChess2025 #ChessInChennai #GrandmastersLive… pic.twitter.com/Ls4OpaafsA
— Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters (@Chennai_GM) August 10, 2025
'I kind of accidentally landed in a very good position. And yeah, he started defending insanely well. I was trying my best to keep out the negative thoughts. It's something I should definitely work on. Sometimes after so many mess-ups, you're going to be like, 'how am I going to mess this one up?' I mean, I tried, but fortunately, no, he defended extremely well, but fortunately, he made a big mistake at that. Otherwise, this would have probably been a draw,' Nihal said.
It is with the goal of improving his classical game that Nihal has turned to Prasanna. While his peers have all breached, 2700 he is still struggling to go anywhere close to it and he said it did bring about pressure in its own ways. 'I try my best not to, but as long as I'm ambitious in chess, I should be having this in the back of my mind. I try my best to not take pressure, but obviously… Let's say it's not active pressure, but obviously there will be some,' Nihal said.
While the likes of Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi have all reached the highs very young in their careers, there is now general anticipation as to how they will face the challenge of staying at top. 'Sport is evolving very fast; new formats, new things. I think the only thing I can do is if they ask, I can describe how I face a certain situation and then it would be their job to convert that. We are not comparing the same thing anymore,' Anand said.
Masters: Karthikeyan Murali bt Jorden van Foreest, Ray Robson drew with Awonder Liang, Nihal Sarin bt Arjun Erigaisi, V Pranav drew with Vidit Gujrathi, Vincent Keymer drew with Anish Giri.
Challengers: Diptayan Ghosh bt GB Harshavardhan, P Iniyan bt Aryan Chopra, Adhiban Baskaran drew with M Pranesh, Leon Mendonca bt D Harika, Abhimanyu Puranik bt R Vaishali.