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It was December 1991. A young 22-year-old player from India by the name of Vishwanathan Anand was playing in northern Italy locking horns with the best in the world. It was the Reggio Emilia tournament. A 10 player round robin event with World Champion Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Vassily Ivanchuk , Boris Gelfand and many strong players participating in it. And guess who won the tournament? The tiger from Madras: Vishy Anand.
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All the other participants were from the European countries and seven of them from Russia. But the Indian won the tournament ahead of all of them and thus burst into the international chess scene as one of the top players in the world. Anand was so happy at his victory that as soon as it became clear he sent a fax (at the time there was no Internet or mobile phones – the fax was emerging technology!) to his family and to Frederic Friedel in Germany. This historic document simply read:
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Fast forward twelve and a half years and we are in July 2014. A category 16 event round robin event was held in Armenia. There were ten players and the average Elo of the tournament was 2629. So why did we mention about the Reggio Emilia tournament of 1991-92 and Vishy Anand? Well, have a look at this cross table of the 2014 Lake Sevan tournament:
Do you notice the similarity? Nine players from the former Soviet Union countries like Armenia, Russia and Ukraine, and one player from India! And Vidit Santosh Gujrathi won the tournament, just like Vishy Anand.
Tournament winner Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of India
The similarities don’t just end there. Vidit was the seventh seed in this event and so was Vishy Anand. They both scored 6.0/9. And the most interesting of all: both Indian players beat the top seed, Kasparov in case of Anand and Areshchenko in case of Vidit, with the black pieces, using the French Defence! Talk about déjà vu all over again.
The 2014 edition of Lake Sevan round robin event was held from 27th July-4th August in Martuni Cultural Palace. It was quite a strong event. The top seed was world number 45 Alexander Areshchenko from Ukraine with a rating of 2701. But the most important thing about the participants was that everyone was young and ambitious. This guaranteed a lot of fighting chess and there were hardly any agreed draws.
After the tournament I was able to get in touch with Vidit and had quite an interesting Skype chat with him. Let us look at this beautiful tournament from the eyes of the winner!
Sagar Shah: How does it feel to win such a strong category 16 event?
Vidit Gujrathi: The feeling is wonderful. In fact this was my first robin event and I went there without any expectations. Thinking about final standings is hardly useful. The only thing I wanted to do was to play fighting chess. Hence, it feels even better to win the tournament.
Sagar: So Vidit, tell us about the conditions over there. You were the only non-European player. How did it feel?
Vidit: It was one of the most wonderfully organized events I have played in. I would first of all like to thank Armenian chess federation and its president Smbat Lputian for inviting me to this tournament.
GM Smbat Lputian congratulates Vidit and hands him the winner’s purse of €4000
The playing hall was excellent. All the players were given single rooms and everything was wonderfully taken care of. Most importantly, the people were co-operative and friendly and hence rather than feeling different about being the only non-European player, I had great fun and made many new friends!
Sagar: Coming to the tournament, what was your schedule like?
Vidit: This time I had consciously decided to not to prepare too much. I would prepare for two hours before the game and around one hour after. The rest of the time all the players would meet and we would play games like ping pong and billiards! You could say that I spent more time on the ping pong table than at the chessboard before the game! This method worked out really wonderfully for me.
Sagar: Robert Hovhannisyan was your first round opponent. You pressed him in an endgame from move 24 to move 92 before agreeing to a draw. Were you seriously trying win this position?
Vidit, who was White, played 25.b3-b4 in this position
Vidit: Well, I was just enjoying the position. I risked absolutely nothing and had no chance of losing and hence played on till the very end. Maybe if he went wrong I could capitalize on his mistake.
Robert Hovhannisyan (2592) finished eighth in the event, with a performance of 2590
Sagar: Round two and three against Kuzubov and Sjugirov were draws. How was your mind set against the top seed Areshchenko in the fourth round?
Vidit: My game with Sjugirov in round three was a real heartbreak. I was totally winning and missed so many chances. So I was really angry with myself after the third round. I just wanted to forget everything and start a new tournament. So I played a lot of ping pong that night and hardly prepared for my game with Areshchenko. And it worked: I won my game against the top seed!
Fifth place: Yuri Kuzubov (2656) with a score of 4.5/9
Sanan Sjugirov (2645) had a wonderful start with 4.0/5.
But later he lost steam and finished fourth with a score of 5.0/9.
Sagar: And the French Defence against Areshchenko! You played that opening for the first time in your life.
Vidit: Yes I just wanted some fresh position. I was bored of the same old openings for that game. I decided French would be a good choice. I had some preparation and decided to give it a go! But mainly I was aiming for a fighting game.
Top seed Areschenko had a forgettable tournament:
he scored 3.5/9 finishing ninth and lost nearly 20 Elo points
Here’s the game against Areshchenko annotated by Vidit himself.
Sagar: After the win with Areshchenko you played another great game against Zaven Andrisian.
Vidit: Yes I managed to win that game convincingly. After the game he told me that he was confused with some move orders in the opening. He made a huge mistake there and after that it didn’t take much efforts from me to win the game.
Zaven Andriasian (2628) finished seventh with 4.5/9 and a performance equivalent to his rating
Sagar: You were 3.5/5. Were you starting to think about winning the tournament?
Vidit: No, not at all. I did not think about the standings until the last round. From my previous experiences I have known how harmful it is to think about it! [laughs]
Sagar: A Petroff Defence against Fedoseev in the sixth round. Once again I think first time in your life! Why the Petroff?
Vidit: I think that day I was in a creative mood. Well, you cannot really say creative because Petroff is hardly an opening which allows you to be creative, but I thought it will give me a fresh position which will be interesting to play. So just like how I decided French against Areshchenko, I went for the Petroff against Fedoseev and drew quite easily.
Vladimir Fedoseev (2668) had a good tournament scoring 5.5/9 and finishing third
The runner up Hrant Melkumyan with 5.5/9 and a performance of 2707
Sagar: After draws with Fedoseev and Melkumyan in round six and seven you were playing against Hovhannes Gabuzyan. Did you go with a must-win approach?
Vidit: I was in a fighting mood in that game and hence went for a slightly tricky line in the opening with the move 8.Bf4!? in the Averbakh System of the King’s Indian Defense. He managed to equalise but the game was still quite tricky. After mutual inaccuracies we reached an equal endgame. There he made a critical error with the move 32…b5. I was a pawn up after that and played on happily in that position to convert it into a full point.
Hovhannes Gabuzyan (2582) finished last scoring just 2.0/9 and losing 18 rating points
Sixth place: Samvel Ter-Sahakyan with 4.5/9
Sagar: In the last round you faced Ter-Sahakyan Samvel and you had a half point lead. You played the Petroff again. Weren’t you afraid of some preparation by your opponent, especially after you had played the opening a few games ago?
Vidit: The Petroff cannot be refuted! And it is such a solid opening that in this situation it looked like the right choice. I was initially also thinking of going for a Caro-Kann. But then I noticed the game Samvel-Hovhannisyan from the same tournament. That was really crazy, with White making a queen and the black king on e3.
This position literally convinced me that Caro Kann was not such a good idea! So I played the Petroff. That too was a complicated struggle but I managed to draw and thus win the tournament.
Sagar: Wonderful! And I think the closing ceremony was also quite unique.
Vidit: Yes. I witnessed the Armenian culture, and they had also had Russian, Ukrainian and Indian performers at the closing ceremony. It was really a nice event.
Interesting performances at the closing ceremony
The two Ukrainians Yuriy Kuzubov and Alexander Areshchenko having a good time!
Vladimir Fedoseev having a good time – in his own way
The picture, with Kuzubov, Areshchenko and Zaven Andriasian, sums it all. There were
brutal fights on the chess board but off the board they were all great friends!
Vidit: Lastly I would like to mention that when I was preparing for this tournament, I tried to inspire myself by looking at games of Vishwanathan Anand from Reggio Emilia tournament 1991-92. He played against all the nine players from European nations, mainly Russia, and won the tournament. The tournament he won was way stronger than this one, but it feels nice to have emulated his effort in some way!
Sagar: Thanks Vidit for this interview. I hope that you will emulate Vishwanathan Anand’s many more achievements in future.
Vidit Gujrathi is one of the most talented youngsters from India. Born in 1994, Vidit already has a number of great achievements to his credit:
He will be spearheading the Indian challenge in the World Junior Championships that will take place in Pune, India in October 2014. You can know more about him from this interview which was taken after he won the bronze medal in the World Junior Championships 2013.
Pictures taken from the Facebook page of Chess Academy of Armenia
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