The grand master

by SHRADHA BASNYAT

FROM ISSUE # 161 (May 2009) | IN THIS ISSUE
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Anish Giri was five years old when his mother first tried to teach him how to play chess. Unsuccessful at making him understand, she gave up. It was on his sixth birthday that he would again encounter the game that he has now mastered. As a birthday gift his father's friend had given him a book titled 'How to be a gentleman'. The book contained a chapter on basic chess. Using this book, he learned the rules and started to play against his mother. It was only later at the age of seven, when he went to a local sport school in St. Petersburg, Russia, that he pursued this mind-game professionally.

Born on 28 June, 1994 to Sanjay Giri, a Nepali scientist and a Russian mother in St. Petersburg, Anish is currently the youngest Grandmaster player in the world and the 12th youngest in chess history. Apart from the World Championship, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain, and a title that remains for life. He had won his first Grandmaster norm at Hilversum Open in 2008 in Holland. And he has done all this without having a regular trainer, learning from just books and chess programs.

So far at a young age of 14, he has won the Russian Championship under 12's and played in many tournaments in Holland and Japan. He has also been playing the German chess Bundesliga since 2008 (premier league of team chess in Germany, which is argued to be one of the strongest and longest running league of its kind and which attracts many top grandmasters from the World).

Anish says, "I think my strongest competition was the Corus Wijk aan Zee group C this year, where I shared second place and achieved my final Grandmaster norm. It was a great honour to play in such a strong tournament. I think it was one of my most satisfying tournaments". However, that doesn't mean that he hasn't had any bad tournaments and games.

Also, in spite being a chess genius, he is one of the few that hasn't ignored the rest of his life to pursue this talent. In fact, he really likes other sports like football and table tennis, though he hasn't achieved the same level of success. Still a high school student, he plans on going ahead with his studies and getting a university degree.

"My parents are strongly against suggestions that I quit school and completely devote my time to chess," he says.  Till now he has been able to juggle both successfully. Also, having the opportunity to live in so many countries, Anish can speak Russian, Dutch, Japanese, English and a bit of Nepali.

"Chess is a rich and interesting game," says Anish. He hopes that the opportunity for this game to grow in Nepal continues as there are many talented people. As for the boy-whiz, we are sure that he will continue to take the chess world by storm.