Can highly-rated speed chess specialist Nihal Sarin crack the classical code?

Six years ago, Nihal made headlines as the third-youngest player globally and the youngest Indian at the time to breach the 2,600 rating mark. Back then, the Kerala prodigy seemed destined for transcendence.
Fast forward to today, Nihal finds himself overshadowed by peers like Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, and D Gukesh, who have all joined the elite ranks of Classical chess. Gukesh recently became the youngest world champion by defeating China’s Ding Liren, Arjun crossed the 2,800 Elo mark — only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to do so — and Praggnanandhaa reached the 2023 World Cup final, a feat no Indian had achieved in nearly two decades.

Nihal rose to prominence much before the likes of Gukesh, Arjun, and Praggnanandhaa, and was once grouped with global talents like Alireza Firouzja and Nodirbek Abdusattorov as the next big thing in chess.

However, it is in speed chess, with multiple championships under his belt, that Nihal flourished. Be it an over-the-board (OTB) Blitz games or online Bullet chess, this format was tailor-made for Nihal’s style.

However, despite being touted as India’s best speed chess player, Nihal has recently been overtaken by players like Aravindh Chithambaram and Pranav Venkatesh who climbed up the ladder with their newfound success in global chess.

In a sport which is highly competitive, unapologetically brutal, and where cut-throat competition is so common, finding your feet becomes extremely difficult.

 

But Nihal is unbothered. After missing out on a spot in the Budapest Olympiad, Nihal took things in his stride. “I was not hurt at all. Playing for India is always an honour, and I’ve been fortunate to be part of some fantastic teams. I’m genuinely happy for my friends who are playing, and I’ll be cheering for them. Who knows? Maybe next time, I’ll be back in the team,” he says.

Nihal’s growth trajectory has also been very different compared to his contemporaries. While chess, at its core, is essentially pattern recognition, the game and the life around it are much more complex. For Nihal, whose cognitive abilities, while growing up — he could recite from memory the scientific names of insects and plants — were far beyond his age, the term prodigal talent was fading away as his form, especially at the purest form of chess — the Standard or Classical — has seemed to have plateaued.

Nihal’s preference for shorter formats is reflected in his early influences. Growing up, his favourite chess books were Alakine’s Best Tactics and Quick Chess Knockouts by Julian Hodgson, indicating his inclination toward aggressive, fast-paced play. This style earned him the nickname “speed devil” and “master tactician.”

“You have to be objective, try to be precise and look to find the absolute best moves as much as you can and need to time very well in the Classical chess. In Rapid and Blitz, it’s more about making reasonably good moves faster, trying to find the moves which are maybe objectively not the best but look to find the moves which would put the maximum pressure on the opponent,” says Nihal.

India’s recent surge in chess talent has left many wondering about Nihal’s place in the hierarchy. “Nihal has a very good playing style, but I don’t know why he doesn’t have as high a rating as Praggnanandhaa or Arjun. It’s a bit of a mystery to me because he is a very strong player,” says Firouzja, the youngest player to reach 2800 Elo, in an interview with The Indian Express. Firouzja, who often plays speed and bullet chess with Nihal online, praised his style, calling him “extremely strong and very talented.”

L-R: India’s Nihal Sarin, R. Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi during World Rapid & Blitz Championship 2023. (Anastasia Korolkova)

Nihal is among the handful of Indian players to have crossed the 2,700 Elo in live ratings. In October 2023, while playing at the European Club Cup in Albania, he became the ninth Indian to go past this milestone.

By June 2019, when Nihal broke into the 2600s, he was the first among Arjun, Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh to do so.

Taking 2018 as the cut-off, Nihal has gained the least points among himself, Arjun, Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh. While Praggnanandhaa added 243, Arjun 391 and Gukesh a whopping 433 Elo points, Nihal could only manage 155 ratings in these six years.

He is a two-time Chess.com Junior Speed Chess Champion and reached the finals of the 2022 Chess.com Global Championship, losing to Wesley So. His run to the finals, which included victories over Anish Giri, Ding Liren, and Vladimir Kramnik, earned him $100,000 — the highest prize money won by an Indian other than Anand at the time.

2022 was a special year for Nihal as he won a gold medal on Board No. 2 in the Mahabalipuram Olympiad, leading India B for a bronze medal finish on home soil. He also went on to win the Tata Steel Rapid Championship before making a semi-final run at the Speed Chess Championship, showcasing his versatility across formats.

However, since then, Nihal’s success has been largely confined to shorter formats. Over the past year, he has participated in only a handful of Classical events, such as the Sharjah Masters, Qatar Masters, French Team Championship, and the German Bundesliga.

Nihal Sarin competes in the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz tournament in Kolkata last year. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)

In Akshayakalpa as a sponsor and long-time manager in Priyadarshan Banjan alongside supportive and well-aware parents, Nihal was blessed with a strong support system. He was barely seven when he first played an online chess game.

If online ratings are anything to go by, Nihal is the best Indian chess player when it comes to shorter time control. He hit a peak rating of 3470 (Lichess) — virtually impossible to hit in OTB chess — making him one of the highest-rated (online rating) players.

With over 53,000 games on Chess.com alone, Nihal has proven his prowess in shorter time controls, As global interest in speed chess grows, Nihal may yet emerge as the next big thing in the chess world.