CHENNAI : Following the footsteps of chess stars like D Gukesh, R Praggnanandha and R Vaishali, another up-and-coming talent from the state has achieved a unique feat. Apart from being one of the youngest Indian chess players, Bharath Subramaniyam has shown his deft moves at the prestigious Cannes Chess Open tournament held between February 19 and 25.
Entering the event as the fifth seed, the 16-year-old from Chennai won the title in a tournament where about nine Grand Masters and 22 international masters participated, including Indian GMs like Sasikiran and Puranik Abhimanyu. Bharath scored 7.5/9 points and the victory helped him to get a cash award of 1800 Euros (Rs 1.6 lakh ) and also increased his ELO rating by 14 points, with six wins and three draws. Previously GM Gukesh had won this annual event in 2020. Last year GM Sayantan Das won it.
“I am happy to win the Cannes Chess Open. I began well and carried forward the momentum. What I like about my performance was that I managed to not get defeated in any round,” said Bharath.
In the tournament, Bharath’s best performance came against Marco Materia. “Marco is a French IM with a 2434 rating. I was playing black pieces in Round 5 and it was a position where black had a slight advantage of a passed pawn. It required a series of high-precision technical moves to put pressure on the opponent for a mistake. It did happen and I went on to capitalise on that,” he said.
Stephen Balasamy P, secretary of the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, hailed his tremendous performance. “Bharath is one of the youngest GMs in the country and a very talented player. He did really well to win the Cannes Chess Open. Victories like this will give him more exposure and also increase his ratings. He has a good future and also the fact that his father travels often with him will give him emotional security as he is still in school,” said Stephen.
Bharath recently had a fantastic world rapid and blitz tournament where he beat several top GMs in the world including 2023 bronze medalist Vincent Keymer, Mamedov Rauf, Jobava Baadur, Adhiban, Sarana Alexey, and Samvel Ter Sahakyan. At one point, Bharath scored six continuous blitz wins only to be stopped by the World champion Magnus Carlsen in Round 9. He finished a creditable 26th in the world rapid tournament.
“My game against Magnus Carlsen in the world blitz was a good experience for me. Magnus played the 1. b3. The position was equal for about 40 moves before I blundered with a few seconds on the clock. The learning experience was that Carlsen was putting pressure on me by playing waiting moves. After the game, Magnus Carlsen told me that it was a good game. In an interview to the press also Magnus mentioned that he had played against me earlier and complimented that I was a lot improved player in the world blitz which made me feel very happy.’’ signed off Bharath.