Group prep, cricket sessions & a coach on a mission: How India got its 86th GM

Hindustan Times

15-05-2025

Bengaluru: In the oasis town of Al-Ain in Abu Dhabi, a group of young Indian chess players from Tamil Nadu have been training together, exchanging opening ideas, rigging up quick cricket sessions with squeeze balls and exam pads inside their coach's hotel room, and chasing GM norms. One of them — 19-year-old Srihari LR — checked off his final GM norm at the Asian Individual Men's Chess Championship, held in the eastern part of the UAE, becoming India's 86th Grandmaster.
Between 2020 and 2023, India churned out 19 Grandmasters. Seven of them in 2023 alone. In 2024, just one new Indian GM was added – 32-year-old Shyaam Nikhil, whose final GM norm arrived after over a decade. After over a year's wait, India now has a new GM.
Srihari picked up his first GM norm in 2023 and crossed 2500 Elo in the published ratings (one of the requirements for a GM title) last year. He arrived in Al-Ain in the hunt for his final GM norm. Academy mate Ilamparthi AR too had similar ambitions. The 16-year-old, though, ended up missing it after a draw in the penultimate round. The Sharjah Open, which starts on May 16, is his next best bet.
For coach Shyam Sundar, the decision to leave his academy in Chennai behind and travel with six of his trainees — four International Masters and two Grandmasters, Bharath Subramaniyam and Pranav V, who became world junior champion in April — for a slew of tournaments in the Middle East for over a month (starting with the Baku Open in late April to the Dubai Open ending in early June) stemmed from what he describes as 'desperation'.
'It's been a while since India has had a GM,' Shyam told HT, 'We need a steady trickle of new GMs to get more players into the game. It's hard to be away from my academy for over a month but I was super desperate to create new GMs. I thought I'd travel with the players and see what best I can do. Having a coach around can make a difference. Apart from Ilamparthi, there's Aswath who needs two more GM norms and Muthaiah who needs one norm and roughly 15 Elo points.'
In Al-Ain, Srihari faced Grandmasters in eight of the nine rounds, defeating both former and reigning world junior champions — Abhijeet Gupta and Pranav — and losing only one game, to fellow Indian PA Iniyan in the final round. Srihari earned his first GM norm at the 2023 Qatar Masters, a tournament where he was paired against a certain Magnus Carlsen in Round 1. What followed was an instructive lesson for the young Indian and a fine 23-move win for the five-time world champion. The Indian teen's second GM norm came at the 2024 Chennai GM Open.
'Chasing GM norms often takes a toll on players,' says coach Shyam, 'Srihari tried his luck in round robin events earlier to get his final norm, but it didn't work out. The pressure builds as the wait grows. It can affect the way you play too. Srihari, for instance, is an extremely solid player. But after his second GM norm, perhaps the pressure to get to a GM title soon led him to change his style and be more dynamic. It backfired so I asked him to hit pause and just get the final norm out of the way rather than changing his style under pressure.'
To get the group to blow off steam between rounds, the 32-year-old coach kept up their cricket-playing tradition. a regular fixture at the 'Chess Thulir' academy. When they were huddled together with laptops discussing openings, Shyam's spacious hotel room in Al-Ain served as the setting for two-hour cricket games with soft foam squeeze stress balls and clipboard exam pads for bats.
'Sometimes these guys carry TT rackets to serve as bats,' says Shyam, 'but this time we used exam pads. It's also a way to get them to bond, and not let the pressure of norms get to them.' Apart from Bharath, the others don't have sponsors covering expenses. 'So, we divide it up among ourselves since we're travelling together.'
On days any two of his trainees play each other, Shyam usually sits it out and lets them make their own decisions. He's pleased with what he's built so far. 'What really moved me was seeing these guys share their PGN files with each other on our Whatsapp group during the tournament. It's pretty rare to see players do that.'