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Photos by Alina L'Ami
Every year, the chess calendar begins with the super tournament in the small Dutch town of Wijk Aan Zee. The tournament has a rich tradition and the first event took place way back in 1938. It’s not without reason that they call it the Wimbledon of chess. The field of this tournament is always very strong, with Magnus Carlsen participating in the last nine out of the ten editions. The winner of the Challengers group in the previous year gets to play against the Masters in the next edition. This time it was the Indian grandmaster B. Adhiban who had won Tata Steel Challengers in 2016, and booked his seat in the Masters 2017.
The find of Tata Steel 2017 - GM Adhiban Baskaran
Adhiban started the tournament as the last seed. Facing world class players like Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Sergey Karjakin, Anish Giri etc. his main task was to put up a respectable show. No one expected him to finish at the top given his relative inexperience of playing at such high level tournaments. As expected, he started off quite poorly with two draws and two losses. When the first rest day came, he was reeling at 1.0/4. But then something magical happened. From the fifth round onwards Adhiban went on to beat World Championship challenger Sergey Karjakin, Polish number one Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Russian Dmitry Andreikin. He played an inspired game against World Champion Magnus Carlsen and was very close to finishing him off. The game finally ended in a draw. The tournament ended with an effortless win against Richard Rapport and Adhiban finished third!
Third behind Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen, Rating performance of 2812 and Elo gain of +29 – now that's a dream debut!
We caught up with Adhiban and spoke to him about his tournament, his seconds, expectations prior to the event, and various crazy opening decisions that he took in his games against world class Opponents!
Sagar Shah (SS): Adhiban, there were some issues that you faced heading up to the event in terms of finding seconds for preparation. Can you tell us more about it?
B. Adhiban (BA): I wanted to ask some friends for help but unfortunately there were lot of Indian opens, Gibraltar and Hastings. So most of them were caught up, but definitely their spirit was with me and hence, such a performance!
SS: You went to the Tata Steel Masters with your father and your second GM Vishnu Prasanna. What were their roles at the event?
Adhiban’s father Baskaran with his second for the event GM Vishnu Prasanna
BA: My dad had to make sure I wouldn’t fall sick (which happened last time) and Vishnu’s role was to make sure I wouldn’t lose in openings. Judging by my performance, I can say both of them performed their roles to perfection. Also all three of us were in high spirits during the entire event which helped me to give my best!
SS: You had many more seconds working for you in the background. Is it possible to reveal who were the ones helping you?
BA: Ah no, this is a long term game! So I have to keep it a secret. As of now I can tell three: My trainer Ubilava whose experience against facing the elite was instrumental and my Indian trainer/longtime coach Mr.Visweswaran because of whom I was well versed in classical games and good knowledge in endgame theory. We have been working from 2007. And bringing Vishnu along was a great decision! He was easy going (in spite of a shaky start) and changing himself to whatever the situation demanded!
Adhiban’s support team at the Tata Steel 2017 (from left to right): GM Vishnu Prasanna, GM Elizbar Ubilava and FM K. Visweswaran (Ubilava’s photo by David Llada, Vishnu’s photo by Sophie Triay)
SS: How happy are you with your 7.5/13 performance. What were your expectations when you started the event?
BA: Yes I am very happy with my performance, but at the same time a bit disappointed that I couldn’t convert the many advantages and chances I got. I wanted to make a debut to be proud of and to make my mark against the elite. I think I managed to fulfill both of these!
SS: Coming to the chess part. You drew your first game and were pitted against Harikrishna in round two. What is your assessment of the above position? You thought for nearly 23 minutes here before playing …c6. Why did you take so much time?
In this position Adhiban thought for 23 minutes before going 17...c6.
BA: It was really stupid of me to think for such a long time, but I had already reached the same position against Kuzubov in 2011, so I was trying to recollect that game and what I had played there. But judging by how my game turned out it was a bad decision.
SS: You come to a tournament – your first super tournament, with a clean slate. You would like to have a perfect event, maybe stay unbeaten. And then right in the second round you lose the game. How did you react to this loss?
In the second round Adhiban and Harikrishna faced off against each other. It was Hari who emerged victorious after a complicated queenless middlegame.
BA: Accidents are inevitable, either you become strong enough to avoid it altogether (like Wesley So) or find the courage to get back on your feet, no matter how many times you fall. Round two was a blow, but I lost because I ruthlessly played for a draw in a position where I was superior. I realized that with such an attitude, I deserved to lose the game and mentally changed myself after the fourth round.
During the opening ceremony I was asked, “How do you plan to fight against such monsters?” I replied, “I guess I have to become a monster myself!” I decided to show everyone that I wasn’t kidding when I said that. The rest, as they say, was history!
SS: You played the London System against Levon in the third round. Was this something that you had prepared before or had you already started innovating?
BA: Aronian’s preparation was very solid and foolproof and we (me and my friend Vishnu) concluded that we had to catch him somewhere in the opening.The London was an inspired decision. Yes,you could say that it was the start of the innovations for the tournament!
SS: Many people were surprised that you didn’t take the pawn on b6 (in the position given below) and instead continued Bd2. Why didn’t you pick up the pawn?
Adhiban vs Pavel Eljanov, Round four
Instead of simply taking the pawn on b6, Adhiban played his bishop to d2 in this position against Eljanov
BA: Until the 4th round many of my decisions lacked the courage, killer punch and firepower. I just assumed that Black would have good compensation, which was not at all the case. It was wrong not to take the pawn and I allowed Eljanov more chances to equalize by playing Bd2 instead of cxb6.
SS: Two draws, two losses, and now a free day. What did you do on that day? You were not to be seen on the football field?
BA: I just made a mental list of my mistakes from the first four games and swore to myself that I won’t let those happen again. I mainly focused on what was coming next. Also I had the huge task for trying to find an interesting line against the World Championship Challenger Sergey Karjakin. So rest day passed very fast. I have never been a big fan of football due to its aggressive nature. I like to save my aggression for the chess board.
While many of the players, including Magnus Carlsen, played Football on the rest day, Adhiban tried to find an interesting opening for Sergey Karjakin
SS: And now the Million dollar question! We know that you played the French for the first time in your life against Karjakin. But why exactly French, and not Caro Kann, or Alekhine or some other opening?
BA: I was totally running out of opening ideas and it was already around 6.30 p.m. (Yes, rest day does pass very fast compared to other days!) Suddenly I got this idea to play the French Defence from one of my friend and he also convinced me of its worth. I am eternally grateful to him since he just changed my tournament from a disaster into a cool debut!
The game which changed Adhiban’s entire tournament – his win against the World Championship Challenger Sergey Karjakin
SS: King’s Gambit against Wesley So! Who came up with this idea and how did you prepare for the game? After all there were no games of Wesley in this line. He could have played anything.
Adhiban managed to pose great problems to Wesley in the opening and had a clearly better position before settling for a draw
BA: The story behind my choosing the King’s Gambit is very funny. I have a friend from Sri Lanka on Facebook. His name is Dineth. One fine day he asked me about the King’s Gambit. I didn’t want to reply to him without checking any games in the opening. So I found out some interesting games and asked him to see those in order to prepare that opening. When I was up against Wesley So and my trainer suggested me to play the King’s Gambit, I immediately knew in my heart that it was the right decision and that it was going to be an epic game! Dineth probably couldn’t probably believe his own eyes when I played his favourite opening!
Dineth Naotunna - the man who inspired Adhiban's choice of King's Gambit against Wesley So!
SS: The game against Radoslaw Wojtaszek looked really complex and topsy turvy. How would you describe it? How did the Polish number one collapse when he had quite a lot of time after 40 moves and also a winning position?
BA: I was so inspired during that game that I was more or less on auto-pilot. I was playing well until a point and once he slipped, I got a decisive advantage, but it was my turn to go wrong before the time control. After it I had the unenviable task of defending a worse position with a pawn down, but I kept thinking that I could somehow turn this around again and couldn’t believe it when he played Ra1 allowing me the manouevre Qa7-e3, after which I was more or less out of danger. Even after that he had many chances to draw but I guess it was my lucky day.
Part II of this interview will follow shortly with Adhiban's views on his wins against Andreikin and Richard Rapport, why he thinks Giri could be the next Petrosian and on his missed winning opportunity against the World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Stay tuned.
Firstpost and ChessBase India have collaborated to bring you extensive and detailed coverage of the chess scene in India and internationally. This article was first published on the Firstpost website on 18th February 2017.
