Srihari LR, the grinder who became India’s 86th grandmaster

All top chess players have ingredients that helped them zoom to the top. The biggest attributes that have helped Srihari get to the GM title, his coach says, are his confidence and his ability to draw water from stone by grinding it out on the board until the opponent errs. These attributes were apparent from very early on when they worked together.

“Srihari was quite a confident child when I first met him! And he was also an extremely solid player, who didn’t lose very often, even when playing against stronger opposition. So, this was a very good quality. But since then, he’s sharpened these things and made it stronger over a period of time,” Shyamsundar told The Indian Express from the UAE. “While he was good in tactics and calculations, I liked his quality of grinding out results. He really can grind something out of nothing against tougher opposition.”

Shyamsundar explained that last month, Srihari was competing in a tournament in Hungary where he was playing a game where a draw seemed a foregone conclusion since there was a rook and four pawns on the board. But Srihari had kept on battling to the point that his opponent had erred, and suddenly the Indian had an edge. He also added that Srihari’s confidence in his abilities helps him rarely have any self-doubt during games. And even if there is a defeat, he’s not someone who takes them to heart.

Getting to the grandmaster title became a bit of a challenge for Srihari: he got his first GM norm at the Qatar Masters in 2023 and the second at the Chennai GM Open in 2024. And while he had crossed the 2500 rating threshold in the published ratings in August 2024, it took him almost 10 months to take the final step.

“It’s always tricky to get the final norm for all players. Your need to earn that final norm makes you take certain risks in games, even if the tournament situation suggests otherwise. He struggled for nearly 10 months to a year to get his final norm. It was very challenging. He tried playing in many round robin events (to get the final norm over with,) but they did not work out well,” said Shyamsundar.

After the third norm was achieved, Shyamsundar posted a curious message on his Instagram post while congratulating India’s 86th GM. Besides the usual congratulatory message, Shyamsundar added: “Time to focus on the next bigger goal.”

When asked what he meant by the ‘next bigger goal,’ Shyamsundar said that he wanted to make Srihari a “more universal player.” His reasoning is that after becoming a grandmaster, Srihari will now play much better-rated players who are unlikely to make mistakes even if Srihari tries to pressure them by grinding out a result.

“My next bigger goal is to fine-tune his way of playing. I’m trying to focus on the next larger picture: For that, I wanted to change some of his playing style,” Shyamsundar said before elaborating: “Being solid is good. But only solid is not good enough to reach the next level. So, I have to bring in some dynamic play in him. Slowly, I want to make him a universal player: a player who is good at positional chess. It’s a bit tricky and very challenging because in this process, I also want to ensure that he doesn’t lose his solid chess, the ability to grind out results. So, it’s a bit tricky. But it’s not very, very difficult either.”