A Sneak Peek at Chess Prodigy Anish Giri

(April 29, 2010, Manila) The changing of guards in the world chess scene seemed to be inevitable, as aging Super Grandmasters of World Chess circuits sanctioned by the FIDE are slowly losing grip of their stronghold of the top ranking and popularity. With Vladimir Kramnik of Russia not so active, and Indian Viswanathan seemed picky on what tournament he’s participating for the past several years, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine losing his old fiery form and slew of other chess superstars not creating too much stir, the young guns of world’s chess continues to showcase their brilliant tactical strategies in top tournaments all over the world, even essaying remarkable upset victories over their higher ranked and favored seasoned opponents. Indeed the world chess is on its uprising thanks to the awesome showing of these unheralded young chess Turks. Worldwide sponsors and the much needed media mileage is now coming in by droves, providing the sparks to keep the game afloat and soon enough will be one of the most popular sporting game in the world again, just like the good old days where Bobby Fischer, Gary Kaparov and Anatoly Karpov are making great noise and providing a lot of interests to the game.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating and dangerous chess players in the bunch of new chess lions is Netherlands’ Anish Giri, the world’s current youngest Grandmaster and the 12^th youngest Grandmaster of all time. Anish Giri is the son of Nepalese Dr. Sanjay Giri and Russian Olga Giri. He was born on June 28, 1994 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

He clinched his third and final grandmaster norm when he toppled Eduardo Iturrizaga in the Group C section of the 2009 Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. He scored 8.5 points in 13 games with 5 wins, 6 draws and a single loss. Giri extracted full points over Grandmasters Ukrainian Oleg Romanishin, Indian Abhijeet Gupta, Venezuelan Eduardo Iturrizaga, and Mexican Manuel Leon Hoyos, and IM Roeland Pruijssers. His draws were against Grandmasters Englishman David Howell, Friso Nijboer, Frank Holzke, and Filipino Wesley So, Indian WGM Dronovalli Harika and Dutch IM Ali Bitalzadeh. His lone loss was at the hands of Swede Tiger Hillarp Persson.

Last September 2009 Anish Giri showed again his fierce fighting form and readiness in facing older and seasoned chess Grandmasters by capturing the top plum in the tough tournament, which is the closed Dutch Championship at Haaksbergen, Netherlands. The tournament is played by Dutch chess players. Giri scored 6 points in eight rounds to annex the title. Although the tournament was marred by a controversy when Sergei Tiviakov leave the tournament after three rounds, Giri provided the flair as he managed to eked out victories over Friso Nijboer, Frans Andre Cuijpers and Karel Van der Weide, drew his games against Dimitri Reinderman, Sipke Ernst, Robin Swinkels, and Ali Bitalzadeh, and the single loss he absorbed in the tournament is from Roi Miedema.

Last January 10, 2010 he captured the prestigious Corus Chess Tournament Group B in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. He pulled the rug from under his more battle-scarred opponents with stirring performance. Giri scored a solid and remarkable 9 points in 13 rounds, on the strength of his 6 wins, 7 draws and just one loss. Giri essayed masterful triumphs over 6 Grandmasters, namely Emil Sutovsky of Israel, Tomy Nyback of Finland, David Howell of Britain, Wesley So of the Philippines, Pentala Harikrishna of India, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania.

In his much-anticipated game in the 11th round against fellow chess prodigy Wesley So, Anish Giri surprised his opponent by diverting the game into Petroff defense. Although So has winning chances of gaining an outright Group A ticket, made some weak moves and even a blunder on the 36^th. Giri capitalized on the mistake made by So as he cruised past the young Filipino and eventually wrap up the game in 37 moves, to escape virtual defeat and paved the way to steal the outright ticket to Group A for winning the Group B. The Group A section of the Corus Chess tournament is one of the most popular, toughest and the most coveted chess tournament, and limited to top notch and elite participants that are invited to play. Last year So topped the Group C competition. In this year's Group A competition Norwegian wonder Magnus Carlsen another young woodpusher smothered the comepetition with finesse and expertise in handling the black and white piecese en route to winning the elusive Group B section championships.

This premier woodpusher is indeed a player to watch in any tournament he will join, for he is capable of embarrassing older and great chess grandmaster with his methodical and truly tactical plays that will smother tough defense. Complementing his dynamic offensive skills, Giri is also capable of shellacking himself foiling his opponent's swarming attacks with sheer grace under pressure.

My 18^th Hub in the 60dc Challenge