CHENNAI: Across Monday and Tuesday, a lot of chess players spoke to the media as part of their obligations ahead of the Chennai Grand Masters. Most of these interviews were rather serious. It's how interviews with chess players tend to go, especially with an important closed Classical tournament on the horizon.
Vincent Keymer spoke about wanting to visit the swimming pool Magnus Carlsen dived into after winning the World Championship for the first time in the city in 2013. "This hotel has a lot of (chess) heritage," he quipped. This tournament, for D Harika, has a lot of meaning. "It's the first time my daughter is ever travelling with me for an event." For Arjun Erigaisi, it's to get back in shape just before the Grand Swiss and the World Cup, two tournaments with Candidates spots.
US' Awonder Liang, though, comes as a breath of fresh air. "I'm just happy to be here," he says, a big, goofy grin as wide as an airport hangar on his face.
Usually, he doesn't play in tournaments like these. The 22-year-old, whose main gig is in finance, says chess is a side hustle. "I think it's been over a year since I played an event of this magnitude," he says. "I play in a lot of local tournaments, maybe win a couple of $1000 or $100... when I played for my university, not even that. I make more money streaming than playing chess and I never stream. I do not make money playing chess. I just play for fun."
So why is he here? His wit again shines out. "A few of my friends had noticed that Arjun (Erigaisi) had lost a few ratings points. He was back from 2800 to 2700-odd. So I thought maybe I can go and donate my four points to him (laughs)."
Liang wasn't always like this. In fact, just a decade ago, he was very serious about his chess career. An age-group world champion who owned a lot of records — he still does — he used to obsess over the board game like all his peers. Then, something snapped. "Just pressure."
His rating is very good — 2696 — and it kind of partly explains why he wanted a taste of elite chess. "Yeah, I was surprised as well (with the decision to come here)," he says. "I think I was beating up all the local guys. So, at some point, you know, I was still playing the local tournaments, but I had some, you know, a big rating like 2650 or something..."
The other thing that makes the Chicago resident unique from the chess world is prep before games. "Probably I do something like five minutes (laughs)," he says. It's common for players to read and revise all the mainlines. Awonder? "Maybe I will read a couple of lines for a few minutes."
He also claims that his opponents are fairly versed with the way he prepares or lack thereof. "I think they look at my games and they are like, '... why is he here?' Who let him play in the tournament? Let's see, I think it will be fun."
As luck would have it, on Thursday, Round 1 of the Chennai Grand Masters, Awonder was paired to face Erigaisi. And the Math and Economics graduate showed why he's rated that highly, at least initially.
Playing Black against the top-seed, Awonder's pieces had structural integrity out of the opening. For a long time, he was pretty much neck and neck against Erigaisi. Per the eval bar, it was stuck dead centre as both players registered very high levels of accuracy (greater than 98%).
But Erigaisi, a year younger than his opponent, started making serious inroads in the middle game. When Awonder was presented with the opportunity to initiate a trade of queens in the 35th move, he opted to keep them on the board. Per the eval bar, this hurt his chances of staying in the game. With the Indian GMs pieces in harmony, a multi-pronged attack came. After 48 moves, Awonder resigned.
Even as the Indian came and obliged a few autograph hunters in the fan zone, the US GM went for the comfort of his room to chew on the opening day defeat.
It will sting but he will not lose sight of the larger picture. "I think it's good to be pretty happy," he had said before the start of the tournament. "I generally value my happiness. Maybe if I lose all my games here, I may start working seriously."
For the time being, though, he has mapped what he would do in the next 10 days or so. "I think I will complete a few books, I generally like to keep myself busy."
Results
Masters: V Pranav drew with Karthikeyan Murali, Vincent Keymer bt Nihal Sarin, Anish Giri drew with Ray Robson, Vidit Gujrathi drew with Jorden van Foreest, Erigaisi bt Liang.
Challengers: Diptayan Ghosh bt D Harika, M Pranesh bt Aryan Chopra, Leon Mendonca bt GB Harshavardhan, A Baskaran drew with A Puranik R Vaishali drew with P Iniyan.