Aradhya Garg becomes the latest International Master from New Delhi

My journey towards the IM title

By Aradhya Garg

I finally completed all requirements to become an International Master on the 3rd January 2024. I achieved this by beating GM Tiger Hillarp Persson, a respected chess player, coach and author in a brutal fight which was decided by few critical moments when he was low on the clock. I must add that technically I won as his flag fell before move 40. With this, I crossed the rating requirement of 2400 and touched 2400 directly with this victory.

My journey towards the IM title has been very intense with a lot of effort, persistence and hardwork finally paying off in the end. There is often a rhetorical debate among chess players about which one is easier to achieve: 3 International Master Norms or the rating of 2400. For me, it was definitely the latter which was much tougher as I had all the required norms by early 2022 itself! I had to wait for more than 1.5 years to finally hit 2400 on the live rating list to complete the rating requirements. In the meantime, I made three extra International Master norms while trying to get to the rating of 2400. In the end, I had six International Master norms.

I made my International Master norms in the following tournaments:

World Youth Championship Under-18 2015.

Zhanat - Aradhya, Round 8

Aradhya Garg (2180) went for a bold attack 27...Nxh3+! 28.gxh3 Qxh3 29.Bc1 g5 30.f3 Rf4! and Black defeated IM Zhanat Saiyn (2409) in ten more moves.

15th Delhi International Category A 2017.

Neelotpal - Aradhya, Round 10

Aradhya (2230) opted to sacrifice a piece when he went 13...Nxd5 against GM Neelotpal Das (2462). 14.g5 h5 15.b4 Nxc3 16.Qd2 Bxb4 17.a3 c5 and soon Black went on to win the game.

1st Guwahati International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament 2022.

Aradhya - Masoud, Round 8

Aradhya (2236) opted for rook and two minor pieces for his queen against GM Masoud Mosadeghpour (IRI, 2511) 19.Rxb7 Qxc2 20.Rxa7 Qxb2 21.Rxe7 Qxd4 22.Be3 Qa4 23.Bxe4 dxe4 and White went on to win the game eventually.

Baku Open 2023.

Issyk-Kul Open 2023.

Qatar Masters 2023.

Live rating 2400: Rilton Cup 2023/24

Aradhya Garg touched 2400 in the live ratings when he defeated GM Tiger Hillarp Persson (SWE) in the seventh round of Rilton Cup 2023/24. His live rating became 2400.2.

I started playing chess at the age of 8 when my mother introduced me to the game in order to prevent my sister (who is 2.5 years elder to me) and me from constantly calling and disturbing her while she was busy working in the office. I was immediately drawn to the nature of the game, the strategic component and the competitiveness and thrill of winning a chess game.

To ensure that I move forward and pursue my passion forward, I was introduced to my first coach, FI Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava sir.

He was a guiding figure and has been a support from me throughout the years. Even now, we often talk together and I remember his calm and warmth in talking to me even very recently, such as after I did not have the best of performances in Abu Dhabi Masters 2023. He is also very often among the first ones to congratulate me for my achievements. We have a great bond together and he is truly like family.

I progressed quite well under his tutelage and got an initial rating of 1576 in July 2010. I steadily increased my rating up to 1901 by July 2011. He also introduced me to two coaches who had a profound influence on me, IM Atanu Lahiri and Mr. Nassir Ali Syed.

These two coaches had a profound influence on my game. Atanu sir helped me with gaining an overall holistic development and also in helping to broaden my understanding of openings and taught me several important life lessons. He was instrumental in helping me through the years and has been a great mentor throughout. Nasir Ali sir meanwhile helped me develop a keen understanding of the game and instilled depth in my game to a considerable degree. He also helped me understand the intricacies of analysing one’s games, instilled passion for the game (which was key for my development.) He was an active strong player till his 90s as well. It was very unfortunate and tragic when he passed away in 2018 and I wish he would be smiling from the clouds when he gets to know about me achieving my IM title. With Nasir sir, we often played training games followed by analysing them and needless to say, the analysis often went even longer than the duration of the whole game!

I trained with these coaches till early 2013. Needless to say, they were instrumental in helping me increase my rating to 1942 in January 2013. From January 2013 onwards, I started to train from GM Abhijit Kunte sir and was also playing regular training games with IM Abhishek Kelkar who was also helping Abhijit Kunte sir regularly. With Abhishek Kelkar bhaiya, he used to help me in analysing my games and also created a very good bond. He would also sometimes help me in opening preparation during tournaments. He remains to this day a friend and someone whom I am very grateful for helping me throughout.

In November 2014, I started working with GM Tejas Bakre sir. He helped me through giving me useful databases, training me how to work on openings, helping me with calculation and being very cheerful as a whole. He remains a great mentor for me and I often take his guidance even in recent times.

I started to work with GM Aleksander Goloshchapov sir in 2014 November itself. I worked with both Aleksander Goloshchapov sir and Tejas sir for quite sometime simultaneously. Both of them were instrumental in helping me win the National U-17 Chess Championship held in 2014 in Bihar, India. I also achieved my 1st International Master and 2nd International Master norm under their guidance in 2015 and 2017 respectively. I believe that Goloshchapov sir helped me to strengthen my foundations in chess, helped me to get a proper understanding of the intricacies of strategic play and helped me form a routine for my preparations. He also stressed on a lot of physical fitness for chess players and I still remember our jogging sessions at night when he used to come to Delhi for our sessions. We worked together for a long time till April 2017 and he still remains a great mentor and guide for me. I feel I owe a lot to him.

From 2017 September, I started to work with FM FT Visweswaran K. He was instrumental in helping me win the Indian National Junior Chess Championships 2019 and in helping me secure my 3rd International Master norm in Guwahati in 2022. He is a strict disciplinarian and is helpful and generous with his time once when one accepts oneself as his student. He also accompanied me to some tournaments (like in Kolkata Open 2018, Odisha Open 2018 etc.) and has often been there helping me with advice and mentorship all throughout.

In 2019, I also began training with GM Farrukh Amonatov sir from Tajikistan. He was a very powerful presence and helped me considerably during National Juniors 2019 as well as during the COVID times considerably.

I still remember his sacrifices and help for me and for allowing me to come in International Master camps (despite me not being an International Master at that time but believing I have the strength to become one soon). Him going out of his way to help me was very humbling for me. He was also always very full of life and was very gracious always. I am grateful to all my coaches for the wonderful support they have given me and for being so kind and courteous always.

I am grateful to all my coaches for the wonderful support they have given me and for being so kind and courteous always.

I would also like to thank everyone who helped me in numerous aspects like mentorship, accommodation, taking care of me, helping me get through the tough times of COVID, my sparring/training partners who were always so happy for me whenever I achieved anything and were the first ones to congratulate me.

I would also like to thank my family who were there for me since the beginning. As I said in the beginning of this article, it was my mom who first noticed the spark in me and helped me pursue my passion considerably. It may seem odd to others, but my mother still follows my game always and no matter where I am in the world, we always talk after each and every game of mine.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my school, Amity International School (Pushp Vihar) for providing me with leaves when I had to go for chess tournaments, for helping me with attendance and for taking care of me all throughout. I am especially very fond of the teachers I had and do miss them. It was also very humbling for me to go to our School Carnival in 2022 December and meet all of them and the joy and happiness they had to see me after a long time was truly humbling.

I feel truly blessed.

Aradhya's Best Achievements

Aradhya Garg has won a lot of accolades in his chess career so far. Here are the best ones:

• Gold - Asian Schools Under-13 Open Rapid 2012

• Silver - Asian Schools Under-13 Open Classical 2012

• Bronze - Asian School Under-11 2011

• Champion - 49th National Junior Under-19 Open 2019

• Champion - Nurtr DCA Rapid Rating Open 2019

• Champion - 25th National Under-17 Open 2014

• Champion - NHPC Rating Tournament for School Students 2013

• Runner-up - Issykkul Open 2023

• Runner-up - 7th Batumi Municipality Cup 2023

• Runner-up - Nurtr DCA Rapid Rating Open 2019

• Runner-up - Imperia Structures Blitz Rating 2014

• Second Runner-up - R Hanumantha Memorial Cup Rapid Rating 2021

• Second Runner-up - CBSE National Individual Under-19 Mixed 2015

• Champion - Delhi State Rapid and Blitz Open April 2022, Rapid and Blitz Open October 2022

• Champion - Delhi State Under-19 Open 2014

• Champion - Delhi State Under-17 Open 2014

• Champion - Delhi State Under-15 Open 2014

• Champion - Delhi State Blitz 2014

• Champion - Delhi State Under-16 Rapid 2014

• Champion - Delhi State Under-12 Rapid 2012

• Runner-up - Delhi State Blitz 2019

• Runner-up - Delhi State Under-15 Open 2015

• Runner-up - Delhi State Under-14 Rapid 2014

• Runner-up - Delhi State Under-16 2012

• Runner-up - Delhi State Under-14 Rapid 2012, 2014

• Runner-up - Delhi State Under-13 Open 2012

• Runner-up - Delhi State School Team Under-15 2011 for Amity Pushp Vihar

Replay Aradhya's games

Videos

The article was edited on 4th February 2024

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