Shreyas Royal, 13, is in contention to score England’s youngest ever grandmaster result in the Bavarian Open at Tegernsee, Germany. Royal won his first five games, the last two against highly rated GMs, before drawing quickly by repeated moves in Thursday’s sixth round against Azerbaijan’s Eltaj Safarli, the 2616-rated No 4 seed in the giant 530-player tournament.
The Greenwich teenager’s fourth- and fifth-round victories were both impressive. In round four he defeated GM Bobby Cheng, 25, the 2016 Australian champion and No 8 seed, in a complex game where Royal’s passed a6 and d7 pawns proved decisive.
Royal’s round-five win against GM Jiri Stocek, 45, the 2011 Czech champion and No 10 seed, lasted only 28 moves after the white player optimistically castled long, inviting a swift counter in the centre. White erred again on move 20, and Royal set up decisive threats with his queen and bishop on the long black diagonal, finishing with a tactical coup which won a rook.
The final three rounds of the Bavarian Open will be played on Friday, Saturday (3pm start) and Sunday (9am start). Games can be followed live at chess24.com. Round seven will be Royal’s hardest assignment yet – Black against the top seed and four times Ukrainian champion, 2659-rated Anton Korobov. Royal’s main objective will be to total 6.5/9 or better, which might be enough for his first grandmaster result.
If he achieves it, it would be a rare feat for a 13-year-old. The list of 40 players who have become grandmasters before their 15th birthday includes many current stars. Royal will not turn 15 until January 2024, so has a chance to join them if he can continue and improve further on nis current form. The youngest English grandmaster until now is David Howell, who qualified in January 2007 aged 16 years one month. Luke McShane also did it at 16.
Four years ago it seemed likely that Royal’s family would have to leave the UK due to the expiration of his father’s work permit, but the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, made a personal decision to allow him to stay. He is home schooled and the many hours a day developing his chess skills has led to a surge in the past year, when he took only a few months to acquire his current title of international master. His coach, GM John Emms, this year captained England’s over-50 teams to gold medals at the world and European championships.
Royal’s progress has been significantly helped by financial support from Tata Consultancy Services, a part of the Tata Group which sponsors the “chess Wimbledon” at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. On the rare occasions where corporate backing of individual chess talents has previously occurred in England it has also produced good results, notably for Nigel Short in his 1991 campaign to challenge Garry Kasparov, and for McShane and Howell as they set their age records.
The 2022 online season ends next week in San Francisco, where Magnus Carlsen will be favourite for another victory in the $150,000 Meltwater Champions Tour final. The event is using a hybrid format where Carlsen and three of the other finalists are physically present in California, while the remaining four compete remotely.
Two of the distant opponents will concern Carlsen most. Wesley So comes fresh from his $200,000 triumph in the 64-player Chess.com Global Knockout, while Jan-Krzysztof Duda was the player who in 2020 ended Carlsen’s record unbeaten run of 125 games. The Pole has since scored several other upset victories against the world No 1.
Play in the Meltwater final is from 14 to 20 November. Will it be the last Champions Tour? The question must be asked following chess.com’s agreed takeover of Play Magnus, which will come into effect shortly and which will inevitably raise questions whether the combined operation can and will be streamlined with significant cost savings. The popular chess24.com website, which offers move by move coverage of many tournaments and lively chat, could be vulnerable
Although So won the Global final, the show stealer was India’s Nihai Sarin, 18, who knocked out Vlad Kramnik, Ding Liren and Anish Giri in the earlier rounds. Sarin traded wins with Giri, and scored a key victory with 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Bf4, a sequence which grandmasters have started to notice since Carlsen twice used it successfully last year.
Come the final and Sarin went for 3 Bf4 again as he tried to get back into the match but So, who had been one of Carlsen’s victims in 2021, was ready. After 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Bf4 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 Bg3 c5 6 e4 Nf6 7 Nd2 (pawn sac for fast development) and now 7...Qxd4! instead of the expected 7...cxd4 8 e5. Black had prepared the opening all the way to move 14, after which White’s position fell apart.
The long-term implication of both the Global final in Toronto and the Meltwater final in San Francisco is that India is firmly on the way to becoming the No 1 chess nation before 2030. The eight GMs in California include Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 17, and Arjun Erigaisi, 19, while the live rating list shows four Indians in the top 10 juniors.
3841 1 Rd2! Be1 2 Ra5+! and if bxa5 3 Rd6 mate or Kxa5 3 Ra2 mate. Traps are 1 Rd3? Bd6! 1 Rd1? Be1! and 1 Rd7? Bc7!
