GM candidate Shreyas turns 15!

Shreyas Royal was born in Bangalore, India, in 2009. Incidentally, the surname 'Royal' doesn't run in the family. It was given after an astrologer advised the family to use a name with the initials SR.

When Shreyas was three, the family he moved to the UK. He learnt chess at six, from his father, Jiterndra Singh. In 2017 he won the European Youth U8 Chess Championship, and in October 2022, at the age of 13, made his full IM title – the youngest English player to ever achieve this. He currently has two GM norms, and is aiming to break the Youngest GM record in the UK (held by David Howell at 16 years and one month). 

Here are some of Shreyas Royal's accomplishments:

• European Youth U8 Chess Champion (2017)
• Youngest English International Master (2022)
• Invited to the London Chess Classic (2023)
• Finished seventh out of 10 at the London Chess Classic (2023)
• Current FIDE rating: 2459

At the end of December, Shreyas played in the 97th Caplin Hastings Congress 2023-24. The main story from the event was his attempt to get his third and final GM norm. Shreyas came very close, finishing in third place, half a point short. He actually missed difficult wins in three of his last four games.

Royalty and prominence: Shreyas with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and with legendary World Champion Garry Kasparov, who has helped train the lad.

The KCF (Kasparov Chess Foundation) invited Shreyas for some European training camps, and in July 2023 he trained directly with Kasparov. They discussed some of his most complicated games, then he was faced with very difficult tests and exercises. In the end, Shreyas was able to impress Kasparov to get selected for the KCF’s “Young Stars” program. They will monitor the students' for the foreseeable future, give recommendations, online sessions, and work alongside their coaches and organise these once-in a year training camps with Kasparov. They recently assigned a coach for Shreyas to work with.

I recently chatted with Shreyas (on Skype). He is a very pleasant young man, intelligent and outgoing. What additionally impressed me was that he spoke with only the slightest trace of an Indian accent – this lad is British. Listen to him in this ChessBase India interview:

I asked Shreyas for annotated games for ChessBase, and they were quickly forthcoming. Here are two samples, the first against his highest-ranked opponent. Note that our endgame expert GM Dr Karsten Müller has analysed the finish in this article. 

The second game is against Gukesh, to which Shrjeyas wrote:

This was my game with 17 year-old Gukesh, already with a peak rating of 2758!. He chose to play in this round robin tournament to try to qualify, through the FIDE Circuit, for the Candidates. Unfortunately, he could not win the tournament and ended up placing third. I may have been one of the party-poopers along the way for his Candidate chances, seeing as he must have been expected to beat me.

Also read

• Malcolm Pein: The future of English chess