Venkatachalam Saravanan

Venkatachalam Saravanan is from Chennai, the southern-most state of Tamil Nadu, India. As with most of the Tamilian names, Venkatachalam is his father’s name, Saravanan is what friends and colleagues call him. He is an International Master and has been an active chess player in the Indian circuit, and has been consistently writing on chess since late 1980s. He turned complete chess professional in 2012, actively playing and being a second to a handful of Indian players. He reports on chess tournaments, occasionally being a correspondent to national newspapers and news channels. Apart from chess, he is also interested in Tamil and English literature, music and photography.

Recent news

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at the Sinquefield Cup 2017 - a look at his games

8/22/2017 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the Sinquefield 2017 convincingly. In a very strong field he won three games, drew six and became sole winner with 6.0/9, half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian. But what distinguished his play, why was he so successful? Venkatachalam Saravanan took a close at his games and tries an answer. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Wesley So's so-so Sinquefield

8/21/2017 – Defending champion Wesley So went through a rough patch at the Sinquefield Cup 2017, scoring just 3.0 / 9 and tying for dead last (with Nepomniachtchi). There is no doubt about his potential and he's shown his tremendous playing strength in the past. We take a deep dive into his tournament to try to understand what went wrong | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz: Highlights from Day 5

8/20/2017 – The thrills and spills from Day 4 continued into the final round-robin. Karjakin's surge faded, and he ended in a tie for second with Hikaru Nakamura. But neither player could catch Levon Aronian, who stayed one step ahead in the combined standings, to clinch first place overall with two rounds to spare. Garry Kasparov finally hit his stride, scoring 5½ / 9 on the final day. If the blitz were a standalone tournament, Kasparov would have been fifth. Here are some of Friday's highlights. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz: Karjakin ascendent

8/18/2017 – Reigning World Blitz Champion Sergey Karjakin dominated the first leg of the Blitz event as he scored 8 points out of a possible 9, but still pronounced that he was ‘actually very angry that I didn’t win my first game against Garry!’ in their mutual encounter. Aronian continues to lead the overall standings comprising the score from the Rapid event as well. One more round-robin cycle of Blitz remains to be played on Friday, August 18th. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz: Nepomniachtchi first to clear lead

8/16/2017 – After six rounds of rapid, Nepomniachtchi leads with 4.0 / 6. He dealt the first loss to Garry Kasparov in Round 5, as the 13th World Champion sits near the bottom of the cross table. But a large group is just half point behind with 3½ points. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Sinquefield Cup: Round 8 - Poised for a photo-finish

8/11/2017 – Anand is still in the joint lead after draw with Vachier-Lagrave, as Aronian drew with Svilder. Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin are lurking a half point back and will have to win in round 9 to have any chance for tournament victory | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Sinquefield Cup: Round 7 - Three at the top

8/10/2017 – We now have a three-way tie for first, after wins by Anand and Aronian. Vachier-Lagrave only drew, and Magnus Carlsen remains a half point back. Garry Kasparov arrived and delighted fans with an appearance on the live commentary webcast! | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Sinquefield Cup: Round 6 - Aronian arises

8/9/2017 – Levon Aronian was the sole winner of the sixth round, impressively defeating Wesley So and moving into shared second place with Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen. The latter missed chances to beat Hikaru Nakamura in a long drawn-out rook endgame, but had to settle for a draw after six hours of play. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave remains in the lead. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Sinquefield Cup: Round 5 - Carlsen back in the pack

8/8/2017 – Magnus Carlsen is back in the black! It was a day when Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen showcased brilliant calculating skills and self belief in order to win their games against Caruana and So respectively. When your opponent makes a move which you have thought was impossible, it is natural to doubt your own calculation. But great players go beyond that doubt and play confidently if they can find no refutation. Anand did just that, and so did Carlsen to score the only victories of the day. Blow by blow analysis of both the games. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Sinquefield Cup: Round 4 - Vachier-Lagreat!

8/6/2017 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave became "the Frenchman with two names...and three points"! On Saturday he eked out a win with Black over World Champion Magnus Carlsen. He now leads Fabiano Caruana, who drew, and five players with an even score a point back. Hikaru Nakamura slipped to -1 with a loss to Neponiachtchi. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Sinquefield Cup: Round 3 - Five Draws

8/5/2017 – It was a calmer day in St. Louis with all games in Round 3 ending in draws. Still plenty of interesting chess, as the tournament heads into the weekend. The main attention was on Anand-Carlsen. | Photo: Austin Fuller

Sinquefield Cup: Round 2 - Carlsenomics

8/4/2017 – The Sinquefield Cup continues to delight the spectators and chess fans, with its indomitable fighting games and typical drama. The second round too saw three games ending decisively and near-complete effort from all the players. | Photos: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour)