CHENNAI: Nihal Sarin is addicted to chess. One view at his profile on chess.com and it's fairly obvious. As of Saturday evening, he has played over 55,000 games on that platform alone. It also brings about his tendency to feature in speed chess (bullet or blitz).
He's one of the best in the world in the quickest time controls but it can come in the way of his Classical preparation. It's kind of why Sarin, who became a GM a month after turning 14 in August 2018, approached Vishnu Prasanna at the back end of last year.
Prasanna, one of several super coaches from this part of the country, considered Sarin's request before saying 'yes'. "We met at Global Chess League (GCL) last year," Prasanna, who worked with D Gukesh for a long time, said. "I have been working with him since March and we have had decent results. Right now, we are looking to see what we can do at the World Cup, Grand Swiss and generally get his ratings (in Classical) higher. That is my main goal."
While Gukesh, 19, Arjun Erigaisi, 21, and R Praggnanandhaa, 19, have added more bows to their Classical quiver, it's perhaps fair to say that their compatriot has slightly fallen behind in the game's oldest format. The 21-year-old, whose Classical rating is 2692, is 'stagnating for a while', according to Prasanna.
Considering ratings alone, it's easy to make that case. Most other Indian players have breached that 2700-mark, a milestone considered elite territory. 'I think he's very good at other formats," Prasanna said. "Like eSports and online chess. He doesn't really need my expertise there. He's already at the top. We came up with some ideas for the eSports World Cup and it worked well, especially in the qualification stage."
More than half of their sessions, though, is dedicated to making Sarin, widely thought of as a speed demon, better in Classical. "He has to find his own way," Prasanna said. "He is bit of a unique talent, I would say. That is what I have observed. I have seen any player approach chess or train chess in the way he does. We are trying to figure out what we can do to make him show results based on the way he approaches chess, based on his results. His early chess education is not traditional, there's a gap there."
There's several things at play here. When Prasanna says 'is not traditional', he means that most of Sarin's formative education has been through online chess. To frame this in some context, Prasanna kept Gukesh away from engines and online chess for a very long time. Prasanna referenced this aspect. "I worked with Gukesh when he was very young so I had the opportunity to shape him. Now, I have to adapt to Nihal," he said with a smile. "His (Sarin) approach to the game is very different but also how do we turn it into results? There's definitely a lot of talent, I have never seen someone like him but we have to make it into something practical. How to turn that talent into results?"
The talent is evident. At the ongoing Chennai Grand Masters, the young Indian has had winning chances in two of the three games. In the endgame, though, an inaccuracy here and a misjudgment there has cost him. On Saturday, two mistakes against Vidit Gujrathi sent him from a winning middlegame to a lost endgame.
Srinath Narayanan, one of Sarin's earlier coaches, sang from the same hymn sheet. "It's a matter of confidence," he said. "He's hard on himself because he was once seen as the leader of this young pack but now he's seen his peers go past him. If you see these three games here, he has actually played well, but not finishing off the games is a matter of confidence. He needs to build that back up."
He has six more games here before featuring in the Grand Swiss and the World Cup. Don't bet against him because the talent is clearly there.
Results (Rd 3)
Masters: Vincent Keymer bt Murali Karthikeyan, Anish Giri drew with V Pranav, Vidit Gujrathi bt Nihal Sarin, Arjun Erigaisi bt Ray Robson, Awonder Liang bt Jorden van Foreest
Challengers: Abhimanyu Puranik bt GB Harshavardhan, Leon Mendonca bt R Vaishali, Adhiban B drew with D Harika, M Pranesh bt P Iniyan, Aryan CHopra drew with Diptayan Ghosh