After being crowned the champion in the 53rd Chess Open at Philadelphia in the United States last week, Bharath Subramaniyam has etched his name into history. The teenager joins the likes of US Grandmaster Hans Niemann and Danish chess great Bent Larsen in the tournament’s list of winners. Out of nine rounds, the 17-year-old from Chennai secured 7.5 points to emerge victorious. He bagged a cash prize of $21,000, equivalent to `17 lakh.
However, winning this tournament did not come easily. Board exams pressed pause on his preparations. “After a four-month break, it was tough to play and gain momentum at the tournament. Now, I have got that and I am now ready to fire,” he said.
The competition had some quality and emerging talents from around the world. Bharath and Grandmaster Harsha Bharathakoti were the two Indians to take part. “The top seed was former world junior champion Jefferey Xiang,’’ said Bharath. “I played against four IMs and one GM. The last round against IM Samrug Narayanan (USA) was tough. It was for three reasons. One is that I knew that if I beat Samrug, I knew I would win this title. All the top boards agreed to draws, and in the US, prize money is shared, and there are no tie-breaks. But I was having the white pieces and wanted to fight it out. The second reason was that Samrug had beaten two strong GMs earlier in the tournament — Harsha and another strong GM in Semen Khanin. I believe he had his GM norm in this tournament and played strongly. The third reason was, the opening was equal, and it was not until 40 moves that I got something out of the game. The game lasted little more than five hours, and hence I was happy,” he recollected.
It was a unique experience for Bharath as he adjusted to a different time zone and the jet lag that came with it. “The USA is 9 hours and 30 minutes behind India. As such, I was having jet lag for more than a week, and adjusting to it was the toughest. Europe was just 3 hours and 30 minutes [behind India], and it was not this difficult. Moreover, the pairings were made just an hour before, which made the format even tougher. I was used to preparing for the opponent before the round, and this was difficult. A different kind of experience,” he shared.
Bharath’s FIDE Elo rating stands at 2561 and is ranked 25th in the world juniors category, so every victory and every award matters to play more tournaments. “Winning this tournament was more important than the cash award; that, too, was motivating. You need to win tournaments to get invited. Of course, cash prizes motivate you and help you in future tournament planning. It also creates momentum. For example, there was a blitz tournament and I won that too,’’ said Bharath, who is preparing for the upcoming national championships.
With top Indian chess players doing well, Bharath believes youngsters like him are big beneficiaries. “It helps grow chess in India. Many youngsters are taking the game up. That is a good sign,” he said.