Norway's second World Champion interviewed

by Niklesh Kumar Jain
12/8/2017 – Magnus Carlsen single handedly uplifted the chess culture in Norway when the 22-year-old became the World Champion in Chennai in 2013. Thanks to Magnus' achievements a major chess boom has been witnessed in Norway. One of the players who is a product of this boom is GM Aryan Tari, just 18 years old, who has already broken into 2600, and recently won the World Junior Championship. ChessBase India caught up with the young achiever for an interview on his fantastic achievement. | Photo: Regani CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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"Magnus Carlsen has helped me to become a better chess player by just existing"

The World Juniors 2017 held in Tarvisio, Italy was a very strong and important event. There were 29 players above the rating of 2500 and players from 64 countries participated. Although the top seed was Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest, and the second seed was Russian Grigory Oparin, in the end it was Norwegian Aryan Tari who became the champion. In a very tense final round, Tari had to hold the knight endgame against the top seed to secure victory. He did, and now Norway boasts both the World Champion as well as the World Junior Champion.

Aryan Tari standing on top of the podium at the recently concluded World Junior Championships 2017 at Tarvisio, Italy | Photo: Jamie Kenmure

Rd. Bo. SNo   Name Rtg FED Pts. Res. we w-we K rtg+/-
1 5 79 IM Tran Minh Thang 2361 VIE 6,0 w ½ 0,78 -0,28 10 -2,80
2 34 75 IM Saiyn Zhanat 2374 KAZ 6,5 s 1 0,77 0,23 10 2,30
3 14 52 IM Petrov Martin 2431 FID 6,0 w 1 0,70 0,30 10 3,00
4 6 36 IM Van Foreest Lucas 2474 NED 7,0 s 1 0,65 0,35 10 3,50
5 3 20 GM Sarana Alexey 2543 RUS 7,5 w 1 0,55 0,45 10 4,50
6 1 11 GM Alekseenko Kirill 2563 RUS 7,5 w 1 0,53 0,47 10 4,70
7 1 14 GM Liang Awonder 2558 USA 7,0 s ½ 0,53 -0,03 10 -0,30
8 1 2 GM Oparin Grigoriy 2606 RUS 7,0 s 1 0,47 0,53 10 5,30
9 1 26 IM Praggnanandhaa R 2509 IND 8,0 w ½ 0,60 -0,10 10 -1,00
10 1 21 IM Xu Xiangyu 2543 CHN 7,5 w ½ 0,55 -0,05 10 -0,50
11 1 1 GM Van Foreest Jorden 2616 NED 8,0 s ½ 0,45 0,05 10 0,50

Aryan went through the tournament unbeaten!

 ChessBase India's Niklesh Jain caught up with Aryan and asked him about his historic victory.

Niklesh Jain (NJ): What does being the world champion mean to you? 

Aryan Tari (AT): It really means a lot, and is of course the biggest achievement in my career. It really motivates me and gives me energy to continue and do my best to keep improving.

 

NJ: You have played a lot of World Junior championships, how difficult was the competition in this one as compared to the previous ones?

AT: So this was my third world juniors as I played in Pune 2014 and Khanty Mansiysk 2015. World Juniors is always a very tough tournament in my opinion, as there are a lot of talents and especially underrated players from India and China. I would say this time was as difficult as the others.

 

NJ: What do you think was your best quality that helped you to win the World Junior title? 

AT: I played with much energy, and my calculation and openings were generally pretty good in this tournament, and that helped me to win. 

Everything worked out well for Aryan in this tournament | Photo: Ruggero Percivaldi


NJ: Whom would you like to dedicate your World Champion's title to? 

AT: I would like to say thanks to my father who taught me chess when I was five years old and has been there for me since I was five, helping financially and taking me to all tournaments. My coaches have also been important, probably the most important were Evgeny Romanov and Axel Smith with whom I worked during my career. '

Little Aryan with his parents and elder brother in 2003!| Photo: Aryan Tari's archives

And this one is in 2016! | Photo: Aryan Tari's archives

NJ: Which was your favourite game in this tournament? 

AT: My favourite game was against Grigory Oparin from round 8. Here are my notes on that game:

[Before you get thinking about that game, here's a position for you to find Aryan's (Black's) best move:]

 
It's Black to move. What would you play?
 
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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.g4 Played instantly by Oparin. I hadn't looked at this line for a long time, and must admit I got a bit nervous when he played it. Bg6 4...Be4! seems to be more precise. To include f3 helps Black 5.f3 Bg6 6.e6 6.h4 h5 7.e6 7.Ne2 e6 7...hxg4 8.Nf4 Ne7∞ 7...Qd6 8.exf7+ Bxf7 9.Be3 hxg4 10.fxg4 Nf6 11.Nc3 Qe6 12.Kd2 Nxg4 was the game Vallejo Pons - Wesley So from World Cup recently where White didn't have much fun... 6...fxe6 7.h4 7.f4 Nf6 7...h5 7...c5 8.h5 Bf7 9.f4 Nc6 10.Nf3 Nf6 8.Bd3 Bxd3 9.Qxd3 Qd6 10.Ne2 10.Qg6+ Kd8 11.Ne2 Nd7 10...Nd7 Black should be completely fine 4...Bd7 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be3 Ne7 7.Qd2 h5 1/2-1/2 (41) Nepomniachtchi,I (2732)-Anand,V (2786) Leuven 2017 8.gxh5 Nf5 9.0-0-0 i'm not a fan of this for Black. 5.e6 Qd6 I was basically out of book and was thinking on every move. 5...fxe6 6.Nf3 6.h4 6.exf7+ Bxf7 7.f4 Nf6 When you don't know what to do, developing your pieces can usually not be that bad! 7...g5! is a nice move, sacrificing a pawn for fighting in the center 8.fxg5 Nd7 9.Nf3 h5 9...e5 is also possible. 8.Nc3 Nbd7 8...g5 9.fxg5 9.Bh3 Oparin was blitzing up to this point, and it always feels uncomfortable when your opponent is playing fast. I spent about 20-25 minutes at this point, and decided my next move is good practically. g5!? I was very happy that my opponent started thinking now at least. I wasn't sure about my g5 move, but it looked fun as it gets messy and hard for him also to calculate stuff. 9...g6 looks like the logical 10.Nf3 Bg7 10...Qe6+ 11.Ne2 10...Ne4!? what the computer thinks is interesting. 11.Nxe4 dxe4 12.Ne5 Be6 And stockfish thinks Black is fine, but this doesn't seem natural to a human with the pawn on e4. 11.0-0 0-0 12.Be3 playing natural moves is just not working, and this is a depressing posistion for Black as he is very passive. 10.fxg5 Ne4 11.Nge2 11.Nxe4 was the critical dxe4 12.Ne2 0-0-0∞ 12...Bg7 13.c3! e5 13...0-0 14.Ng3± Bc4 15.Nf5! 15.Nxe4 Qe6 13...0-0-0 14.Ng3 14.Ng3± 13.Bg2 it is hard to give an assessment. The posistion remains messy and double edged I would say 11...Bg7?! 11...Nxc3 as Black wants to rather avoid Nxe4 it makes sense to change on c3. 12.bxc3 h6!? 12.0-0?! 12.Nxe4 dxe4 13.c3! The big problem for Black is the f5-square, which this variation shows: e5 13...0-0 14.Ng3 Bc4 and I thought I should have compensation here when playing 8...g5, but the knight lands on f5 and it kills everything. 14.Ng3± 12...0-0?! 12...h6! 13.Nxe4 dxe4 13.Be3 13.Nxe4 dxe4 14.c3! again Bc4 15.Be3 e5 16.Rxf8+ Rxf8 17.Ng3 13...Nb6! seems to be the only move to create anything. 13...Nxc3 14.bxc3 e5 15.Ng3!± this is again the problem. 14.Bf4? Was very surprising, and I cannot understand this move. Anyway the bishop seems to be strange on f4, but I guess Oparin must have missed my next move: 14.b3 is the most logical and I am surprised that Oparin didn't went for this move. I thought White might be better Nxc3 15.Nxc3 e5 16.Ne2! this move was annoying me, and I remember I was afraid of him going for this. 14...Nxc3! Black gets e5 with tempo 14...Qb4 15.Nxe4 dxe4 16.Bg2 15.bxc3 e5 Now suddenly everything has changed, and it is clear that Black is in time with everything and has huge compensation for one pawn of course. 16.Bg3?! Taking the square away from the knight. Now I was sure that I have a fantastic posistion. 16.Bc1 what I was not sure about Bg6 17.Ng3 Rxf1+ 18.Bxf1 Qe6 Black is just too active, and the f5-square doesn't help white that much anymore. 19.Qe2 was still better to go for, as White has a strong knight on g3 at least. 19.Bh3 exd4 20.cxd4 Bxc2! 16...Nc4 In a practical game it is extremely hard to try to fight in this posistion. But it went down surprisingly fast for White. 17.Rf5 Trying to be creative, but unfortunately for White it doesnt work. Black can take this rook under good circumstances. 17.dxe5 Bxe5 18.Rf3 Bg6 19.Nd4 was the only chance, although Black still has a very good posistion after Be4 17...Bg6 18.Qd3 18.Rb1 Qe7 18...Qe7 Now everything collapses, and all tactics are in Black's favour. 19.dxe5 Nxe5 20.Qe3 20.Bxe5 Bxe5 20...Bxf5 21.gxf5 Bxe5 22.f6 21.Qd2 Bxf5 22.gxf5 Rae8 20...Bxf5 21.gxf5 Qxg5!-+ What Oparin missed when playing Qe3. It was definetly not his day! 22.Nf4 Rae8 Bringing the last piece to the party 23.Qe2 23.Qxa7 h5! 24.Ne6 Rxe6 25.fxe6 h4 26.e7 Re8-+ 23...Ng6 23...Rxf5 24.Bxf5 Qxf5 24.Ne6 Nf4‼ I was extremly happy with this move, as I saw it just wins on the spot after Qe2. If it wasn't for this move, White would still fight. The K on g1 makes everything work, and Black just gets a endgame with a lot of material up. 25.Qg4 25.Nxg5 Nxh3+ 25...Nxe2+ 26.Kh1 Nxg3+ 27.hxg3 Re3 26.Nxh3 Rxe2-+ 25...Nxh3+ 26.Qxh3 Qxf5 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Oparin,G2606Tari,A25810–12017B12World Juniors U208

The Caro Kann is a very tricky opening. Black’s play is based on controlling and fighting for key light squares. It is a line which was very fashionable in late 90s and early 2000s due to the successes of greats like Karpov, Anand, Dreev etc. Recently due to strong engines lot of key developments have been made and some new lines have been introduced, while others have been refuted altogether. I have analyzed the new trends carefully and found some new ideas for Black.

NJ: What is your opinion about the young Indian talent R. Praggnanandhaa. Do you think he has the ability to become a future World Champion?

 12-year-old R. Praggnanandhaa not only finished fourth at the World Juniors 2017, but he also remained unbeaten and made his first GM norm | Photo: Ruggero Percivaldi

AT: Praggnanandhaa is of course very talented and gifted. I was impressed by how much he saw during our game, and he calculates pretty well. In our game we both made some mistakes here and there, but I think he is making less and less mistakes. Generally he has the chance to reach as far as he wants, but I think it really depends on the motivation and work he does for the next five years. For a 12-year-old he has the best starting point for a World Champion. It's hard to say more than that. We just have to see!

 

NJ: After nine years both the World Champion and World Junior Champion are from the same country. Before this it happened in 2008. It was Viswanthan Anand and Abhijeet Gupta from India. Do you think India and Norway are the two new emerging superpowers of the chess world? 

AT: I hope so, although India still has a lot more talents than Norway without any doubt. I think in the upcoming years Norway will produce more talents as chess is getting more popular here, and it feels very cool to think that we have two World Champions. 

NJ: How has Magnus Carlsen helped you to become better chess player? 

AT: He has helped me to become a better chess player by just existing. From my childhood he was always the big star in Norway and I was always following his games. You definitely get more motivated when the World Champion lives in your country. He always makes me wonder how does he do it, and that makes me want to try to reach far myself. We haven't looked that much at chess together, but we had like two training camps which was fun and useful. 

 

NJ: Does having a role model like Magnus Carlsen make your life difficult in Norway because it's like you have to emulate someone who is the best in the world? 

AT: I would say it is just very positive. If Magnus wouldn't exist, I'm sure I would be more lazy. Because we are from the same country and he is the best, it just gives me motivation.

"If Magnus Carlsen would not have existed I am sure I would have been more lazy!" - Aryan Tari | Photo: Ole Kristian Strom, VG

NJ: Can you tell us something about origin of your name? ”Aryan” is a very common first name in India? 

AT: So my parents are from Iran, and thats why I have this name. It is a normal name there. But I was born and raised in Norway. 

 

NJ: What are the next tournaments you are going to play? 

AT: I will play in Tata Steel in Holland in January, the B group. I might play something before, but not sure. 

 

NJ: What are your interests apart from chess? 

AT: Apart from chess I go my last year in high school. I like during my free time to go for walks, gym, spend time with friends and just talk. 

 

NJ: How does chess make you happy? 

AT: Chess really makes me happy as you meet interesting people and get new friends around the world. Of course winning is a very good feeling!

From a talented youngster to a full fledged grandmaster, Aryan Tari is Norway's best bet to create Magnus Carlsen's successor | Photo: Aryan Tari

Niklesh Jain with Aryan Tari when he was already tremendously strong! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

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FIDE Instructor Niklesh Kumar Jain Jain is an international chess player who has participated in tournaments in almost in 20 different countries, winning the international tournament in Sri Lanka in 2010. He also worked for a television network as an anchor and news writer for two years and reported in Hindi during World Chess Championship 2013 and 2014.

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