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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
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.
West Australian
09-05-2025
- Sport
- West Australian
Li keeps the heat on leading rookie Couvra in Turkey
France's Martin Couvra will take a two-shot lead into the weekend as he looks to win his first DP World Tour title at the Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya. The 22-year-old rookie started the day in a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard but pulled clear of the chasing pack courtesy of a five-under 66 at Regnum Carya on Friday. Couvra has impressed during his maiden campaign at this level, having already posted four top-10 finishes, including fifth at the Hainan Classic last time out. "I'm really happy about my game today - it's always good to have a bogey-free round," said world No.247 Couvra. At 11-under par, Couvra leads by two from South Africa's Wilco Nienaber (65), with Li Haotong (65) a shot further back in third. The 29-year-old from Shanghai, China remains in contention to win his fifth European tour event after claiming the Qatar Masters in Doha in February. Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald (72) missed the cut on three over par, with Todd Clements (68) leading the British challenge on seven under in a tie for fourth. The two Australians in the field both missed the weekend cut, with Daniel Gale (75) at even and Danny List (78) five-over the card. With AAP.
Perth Now
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Perth Now
Li keeps the heat on leading rookie Couvra in Turkey
France's Martin Couvra will take a two-shot lead into the weekend as he looks to win his first DP World Tour title at the Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya. The 22-year-old rookie started the day in a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard but pulled clear of the chasing pack courtesy of a five-under 66 at Regnum Carya on Friday. Couvra has impressed during his maiden campaign at this level, having already posted four top-10 finishes, including fifth at the Hainan Classic last time out. "I'm really happy about my game today - it's always good to have a bogey-free round," said world No.247 Couvra. At 11-under par, Couvra leads by two from South Africa's Wilco Nienaber (65), with Li Haotong (65) a shot further back in third. The 29-year-old from Shanghai, China remains in contention to win his fifth European tour event after claiming the Qatar Masters in Doha in February. Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald (72) missed the cut on three over par, with Todd Clements (68) leading the British challenge on seven under in a tie for fourth. The two Australians in the field both missed the weekend cut, with Daniel Gale (75) at even and Danny List (78) five-over the card. With AAP.
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First Post
22-04-2025
- Sport
- First Post
Uncompromising Magnus Carlsen forces opponent to remove wrist watch before Freestyle Chess match; watch video
Magnus Carlsen showed no mercy as he spotted his opponent Victor Mikhalevski wearing a wristwatch during their match at the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open. Carlsen leads the standings after five rounds. read more Fresh from winning the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, world No.1 Magnus Carlsen is having another good outing at the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open. After five rounds, Carlsen is in the lead and the only player with a perfect score of 5/5. On Saturday, the five-time world champion Carlsen defeated Grandmasters Etienne Bacrot and Victor Mikhalevski. The match against 53-year-old Israeli Grandmaster Victor Mikhalevski became particularly notable due to a special request that Carlsen made just before their match started. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Carlsen forces opponent to remove wrist watch Before both players could engage in an intense battle of chess, Carlsen called for the arbiter as Mikhalevski was wearing a wrist watch. As a result, Mikhalevski was forced to hand over his wrist watch to the arbiter. Magnus calls the arbiter before the game since his opponent, Victor Mikhalevski, has a watch! — chess24 (@chess24com) April 19, 2025 It's not strange to see Carlsen complaining about his opponent wearing a wrist watch. Similarly, in 2023, at the Qatar Masters chess event, Carlsen had complained about Alisher Suleymenov wearing a wrist watch after losing to the Kazakhstan player. Carlsen had clarified on social media X that he was not accusing Suleymenov of cheating, but the wrist watch made it difficult for him to concentrate. He was also angry with the organisers for not taking action against it. 'I was completely crushed in my game today. This is not to accuse my opponent of anything, who played an amazing game and deserved to win, but honestly, as soon as I saw my opponent was wearing a watch early in the game, I lost my ability to concentrate,' Carlsen wrote on X. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'I obviously take responsibility for my inability to deal with those thoughts properly, but it's also incredibly frustrating to see organisers still not taking anti-cheating seriously at all (no transmission delay, spectators walking around the playing hall with smartphones),' he added. Carlsen leads Grenke Chess Freestyle Open standings Coming back to the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open, which is taking place in Karlsruhe, Germany. Carlsen is currently in the lead after five rounds but seven players are behind him by just half a point. Those seven Grandmasters are Awonder Liang, Paulius Pultinevicius, Baadur Jobava, Matthias Bluebaum, Alexey Sarana, Parham Maghsoodloo and Leon Luke Mendonca. American Grandmaster Hans Niemann, who skipped the Paris Freestyle Chess grand Slam, is also fighting for the title at the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open. He has four points after five rounds.
