Everything has come together now: Aravindh

Aravindh with his reward for winning the Prague Masters.
| Photo Credit: Courtesy: Prague Chess Festival

Aravindh Chithambaram is the new poster boy of Indian chess.

The 25-year-old, considered a late bloomer and one whom his coach R. B. Ramesh said, “is the most talented player after Viswanathan Anand”, has again made waves after winning the Prague Masters on Friday, defeating strong contenders such as the Dutchman Anish Giri, Wei Yi of China and Germany’s Vincent Keymer.

With two classical titles in a span of four months, what has changed for Aravindh? “It’s better late than never. I don’t know what exactly happened. Something has changed. I am unable figure it out. Everything has come together” Aravindh told The Hindu here on Sunday.

According to the Chennai GM, the Prague win was sweet because he played some really good games and enjoyed all of them. “I loved my games with Anish Giri, Wei and Keymer. With Anish, I found a good sequence of moves (Queen h4 and Knight g5). I took a risky opening. Generally, it’s considered to be objectively bad. According to the engine and general analysis, the move was considered risky. I thought why not try this. It turned out to be a good decision,” he said.

Against the Chinese GM, Aravindh said it was preparation that helped him secure a win. “It’s very hard to beat Wei. In general, Chinese are very hard to beat. But with Wei, I was well prepared.”

Against Keymer, Aravindh played the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, a unique opening . “It’s a rare line for which Keymer was not prepared,” said the Prague Masters champion.

Indian men’s chess, opined Aravindh, is so strong that the country can field as many as three if not two teams for Olympiads in the future.

“We might be having two strong teams that will be contender for Olympiads. We can even go even with three teams. That’s the quality of Indian chess,” he said.

Aravindh has played quite a few games of Freestyle chess, which some consider as the future. The reigning Chennai GM tournament winner, however, said both classical and freestyle chess will coexist.

Aravindh’s coach Ramesh said whenever he seemed to be doing well, self-doubts pulled him down. “He is very talented, in fact the most talented after five-time world champion Anand. But at that time, he was not believing in himself. Self-doubt was his main stumbling block. Now, he is sure about himself,” he said.