Another gem added to Chennai’s crown

by Padmaja Jayaraman

As he saw his eight-year-old brother play chess, the four-and-a-half-year-old boy started moving the pieces on the chessboard by a happy chance, without an inkling of the game. After a decade, he became the 73rd Grandmaster (GM) of India, scoring 6.5 points in the nine-round tournament. 

“Congrats to Bharat for becoming a GM. He is a very talented kid. He has excellent intuition. All the best,” tweeted the first Grandmaster of India, Vishwanathan Anand, on January 10, after Bharath Subramaniyam bagged his third GM norm at the Vergani Cup Open in Italy. Three GM norms need to be in the bag for a player to become a Grandmaster. 

Recognising the inclination Bharath had towards the game, his father, Harishankar, taught him the rules of chess when he was five. Then, he started attending chess classes with his elder brother, Balasubramaniam. 

As fate would have it, many factors played in, apart from his innate talent for the game, for Bharath to become a Grandmaster. 

Harishankar is a chess player himself, and he played during the 90s. But, his dream of playing in rated tournaments did not transpire due to financial constraints during that time. But, his passion for chess never got crushed, as he used to play with his friends frequently. Bharath and Balasubramaniyam grew up watching their father play chess. Balasubramaniam is a rated chess player with a 2298 rating. His mother, Yamini Yuvarajan, accompanied both the brothers to tournaments. With a family well-exposed to chess, Bharath has always had them to be his backbone throughout his chess journey. 

His school, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, also extended its support. “Whenever I miss classes due to tournaments, my class teacher fills me with all the work I need to do over a call. My classmates send me class notes when I am away, to help me catch up with the subjects,” shares Bharath. Recounting a conversation that happened with the headmistress of the primary classes, Yamini says, “The headmistress believed that Bharath will reach great heights in chess.”

A good coach is a linchpin between a player and victory. Bharath initially trained under Grandmaster R.B. Ramesh from 2014 to 2021 beginning. “He coached me till I became an International Master. He strengthened my foundations,” says Bharath, as he recounts how Ramesh made him observe the games of his seniors and learn from them. His current coach, Grandmaster Shyam Sundar, taught him risk-taking techniques to defeat aggressive opponents who play offence. “To me, a teacher becomes successful only when the student is independent and can make his own decisions,” remarks Sundar, wanting Bharath to grow independent without waiting for Shyam’s counsel. 

The people around him might have pushed him towards the sky. But his own interest coupled with talent in the game has been driving him towards the stars. “When we enjoy and play the game, the result automatically follows,” shares the young chess wiz, adding that he did not aspire to be an ace chess player when he was small. Getting candid, he continues, “I played because it was fun to play chess.” 
However, with more tournaments piling on his path came the high stakes of victory and loss. By 2015, Bharath started competing in international tournaments. He won the Asian Youth Championship in the Under-8 category in South Korea. Soon after that, he toured Greece, Brazil, Russia, Bulgaria, notching up the title of International Master and bagging two GM norms. In October 2021, he got his second GM norm in Junior Roundtable Under 21 tournament in Bulgaria. 

He never gets bogged down by failures, says Sundar with admiration. “I have failed many games. But I believe that learning from failures is important for winning,” reveals Bharath, recollecting the words of his previous coach: “Failure is not the end.” After the tournament, he recreates his games to screen for his blind spots. “Suppose there is a problem in the opening game, then I work to improve it. The same goes for the middle game. If I waste a lot of time thinking, then I know that I need to improve my discipline,” elucidates the 14-year-old Grandmaster. A game of chess has three stages – opening game, middle game, and end game. Players use different tactics at every stage to win during the endgame.

Sundar also sits with Bharath to help him analyse the games he played. The coach discloses the secret sauce of Bharath: “He used to be a very principled player who hardly takes risks. I taught him to make some dubious moves deliberately. Sometimes you have to gamble to win.” To prove his point, Sundar used to play dubious moves with Bharath and defeat him. “Now, I think he is adapting to it [risk-taking techniques],” says the coach. 

Breaking away from the stereotypes of a teacher-student relationship, Sundar and Bharath josh around cracking jokes from Tamil movies. This has helped Sundar connect with his student on a much deeper level, albeit the coach being twice his age. “The coach and student must be close for the student to grow better,” shares Sundar. 

Bharath’s next goal is to become a world chess champion, following the footsteps of his role model, Vishwanathan Anand. “He is from Chennai, my hometown, and he has become the world champion,” he says. Chennai has churned out 17 Grandmasters of India, including Bharath – the most number of Grandmasters any city has produced in India. No wonder Chennai is called the ‘Mecca of Chess.’ “I think this is because there are a lot of strong players in Chennai. During my playing days, there would be a lot of strong players within a radius of three to four kilometers. But in any other city, you will not find strong players even in a radius of 100 kilometers,” comments Sundar. 

The streak set off by the first Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand has indeed multiplied to produce 16 other Grandmasters. Strong players push near-strong players to become strong players. For instance, the brothers, Bharath and Balasubramaniam, turned out to be lucky – they were two strong players under the same roof who played each other, bettering every day. 

The bottomline is, the chess legacy is to continue in the city, where more gems like Bharath will spring up, adding to the city’s crown of Grandmasters.

Please follow and like us: