For Aravindh Chithambaram, the ongoing second edition of the Chennai Grandmasters classical chess tournament is his first ‘super classical’ tournament.
He’s pitted against Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Levon Aronian (USA), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Alexey Sarana (Serbia), and Iranians Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei in the Masters section.
Having managed to draw all his games until the fifth round, he acknowledged the strength of his opponents and noted that he never had a chance to win any of his games.
He’s learnt about the resourcefulness of top players, particularly their ability to find ways to save games even in losing positions. This experience has shown him the importance of being alert at all times.
“I was excited to be a part of this (tournament) and am really enjoying it. These guys are very hard to beat. I’ve realised how strong these guys are. Now I understand the power of Magnus (Carlsen), from how he’s been beating all these players! It’s inspiring to kind of see them play.
“They are all very resourceful. [Even] when they are in losing positions, it’s hard to beat them. They find some resources to save the game. So, you have to be alert all the time to beat them. That is one thing these players are very good at,” he said.
Playing in the Challengers section, Karthikeyan Murali echoed the same while stating his key takeaway from the tournament.
“One big thing which I learnt is their stamina during the games. It is intense concentration till the end of the game. And even if it’s a bad position, the kind of resilience they are giving. These were tremendous to watch.”
Besides top players like R. Vaishali and D. Harika, the Challengers section also features Leon Luke Mendonca, who won the Tata Steel Challengers in Wijk aan Zee (the Netherlands) in January.
Sarana expressed dissatisfaction with his overall performance (three draws and two losses until round five) and attributed his poor performance to mental fatigue due to a packed schedule and his lack of experience in round-robin tournaments. He highlighted the importance of arriving early for tournaments distant from Europe.
“Overall, not very good (performance). I played some new openings and tried some new things, though. But it’s a very tough tournament as well, and I’m not in good shape. You get a strong opponent after a strong opponent. But that’s the problem with round-robin tournaments for me - I haven’t played that much.
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“And in October, I had three tournaments in a row. So, I would say that for such tournaments (like Chennai Grandmasters), which are very far from Europe, it’s better to come a bit earlier - at least, two days before the tournament. I arrived on the last day before the tournament and had a very bad sleep. And then, I played a very bad game against Levon Aronian. I was lazy in that game. After the opening, I didn’t convince myself to calculate some lines. I decided to play fast and eventually ended up very fast in trouble,” he said.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave during Chennai Grand Masters Tournament 2024. | Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B/The Hindu
He added that he admires the Indian payers for their ability to play numerous events consecutively. “I’m very impressed with Indian players. They play tournament after tournament. But I think I’m not that kind of player.”
Vachier-Lagrave mentioned that he was excited to be playing in the current edition of the tournament, particularly because, apart from Levon Aronian, he has rarely played against the other competitors, which is a rare occurrence for him nowadays.
“I know them all, but what’s fun for me is that, apart from Levon, who I’ve known for a very long time, I’ve rarely played against all the other players. So, it’s kind of fresh in a way, and it rarely happens nowadays. Almost all my opponents, I’m playing for the first or second time, and that’s kind of fun,” he said.
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