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Indian Express
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Srihari LR, the grinder who became India's 86th grandmaster
About two years ago, a teenager arrived at grandmaster Shyamsundar Mohanraj's house for a routine one-to-one session. But in the span of a few hours, some things about the boy became apparent to Shyamsundar: he was one of the most positive-thinking players he had met, and he was a grinder on the board, looking to fight on even if chess theory suggested that the game was destined to end in a draw. About two years after Shyamsundar became that teenager's full-time coach, that boy, Srihari LR, assured himself the grandmaster title with an incredible performance at the Asian Individual Men's Chess Championship, which ended on Thursday at Al-Ain in the UAE. The Chennai-based Srihari, thus, becomes the country's 86 grandmaster. All top chess players have ingredients that helped them zoom to the top. The biggest attributes that have helped Srihari get to the GM title, his coach says, are his confidence and his ability to draw water from stone by grinding it out on the board until the opponent errs. These attributes were apparent from very early on when they worked together. 'Srihari was quite a confident child when I first met him! And he was also an extremely solid player, who didn't lose very often, even when playing against stronger opposition. So, this was a very good quality. But since then, he's sharpened these things and made it stronger over a period of time,' Shyamsundar told The Indian Express from UAE. 'While he was good in tactics and calculations, I liked his quality of grinding out results. He really can grind something out of nothing against tougher oppositions.' Shyamsundar explained that last month, Srihari was competing in a tournament in Hungary where he was playing a game where a draw seemed a foregone conclusion since there was a rook and four pawns on the board. But Srihari had kept on battling to the point that his opponent had erred and suddenly the Indian had an edge. He also added that Srihari's confidence in his own abilities helps him rarely have any self-doubt during games. And even if there is a defeat, he's not someone who takes them to heart. Getting to the grandmaster title became a bit of a challenge for Srihari: he got his first GM norm at the Qatar Masters in 2023 and the second at the Chennai GM Open in 2024. And while he had crossed the 2500 rating threshold in the published ratings in August 2024, it took him almost 10 months to take the final step. 'It's always tricky to get the final norm for all players. Your need to earn that final norm makes you take certain risks in games even if the tournament situation suggests otherwise. He struggled for nearly 10 months to a year to get his final norm. It was very challenging. He tried playing in many round robin events (to get the final norm over with) but they did not work out well,' said Shyamsundar. After the third norm was achieved, Shyamsundar posted a curious message on his Instagram post while congratulating India's 86th GM. Besides the usual congratulatory message, Shyamsundar added: 'Time to focus on the next bigger goal.' Ask him what he meant by the 'next bigger goal', Shyamsundar said that he wanted to make Srihari a 'more universal player'. His reasoning for this is that after becoming a grandmaster, Srihari will now play much better rated players who are unlikely to make mistakes even if Srihari tries to pressure them by grinding out a result. 'My next bigger goal is to fine-tune his way of playing. I'm trying to focus on the next larger picture: For that, I wanted to change some of his playing style,' Shyamsundar said before elaborating: 'Being solid is good. But only solid is not good enough to reach the next level. So, I have to bring in some dynamic play in him. Slowly, I want to make him a universal player: a player who is good at positional chess. It's a bit tricky and very challenging because in this process, I also want to ensure that he doesn't lose his solid chess, the ability to grind out results. So, it's a bit tricky. But it's not very very difficult either.' Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
Hindustan Times
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Group prep, cricket sessions & a coach on a mission: How India got its 86th GM
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.'
Indian Express
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Srihari LR becomes India's 86th Grandmaster
A full year after getting its 85 grandmaster, India got its 86th GM after 19-year-old Srihari LR got the coveted title when he played against GM Iniyan Paneerselvam at the Asian Individual Men's Chess Championship which is going on right now at Al-Ain. Before Srihari, India's last grandmaster was Shyaamnikhil P, who earned the top title in the sport on 12th May, 2024. Srihari, who unsurprisingly hails from the state of Tamil Nadu, is coached by grandmaster Shyam Sundar at the academy called Chess Thulir. Shyam Sundar has also coached the likes of Pranav V. 'Congratulations for becoming the latest GM after securing the final GM norm here in the Asian open, Al Ain. It took nearly a year to get the final norm. Glad it happened now and time to focus on the next bigger goal! 2nd IM to GM from my academy!' Shyam Sundar posted on Instagram. Coming into the Asian Individual Men's Chess Championship, Srihari had earned his two grandmaster norms — the first coming at the Qatar Masters in 2023, while the second one came at the Chennai GM Open event in 2024. He had also crossed the 2500 rating threshold in the published ratings last year itself in August 2024. All Srihari needed was to play the game against Iniyan Paneerselvam at Al-Ain for him to secure his third norm that confirms his ascendency to the GM title. At Al-Ain, Srihari has gone unbeaten in eight games while his ninth game against Iniyan is still going on. Remarkably, eight of his games at the event have come against grandmasters. He has beaten Indian grandmasters Abhijeet Gupta and Pranav V while holding other GMs like AR Saleh Salem (from UAE), China's Xu Xiangyu, Pranav Anand, Aleksey Grebnev (representing FIDE) and Pranesh M to draws.
