We caught up with Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta for an interview just after he won the Commonwealth Chess Championship, which was held at Sri Lanka, Aug 2016. A renowned personality and a passionate Chess player, Bhaiyyu as he is called in Chess circles, opens up about Chess, life and more.
We are thankful to him for giving us his time and for sharing his experiences with us. Read on.
Rucha Pujari: First of all, Congratulations Abhijeet on your recent Commonwealth victory, how do you feel?
Abhijeet Gupta: Thank you so much! I feel nice and it feels nice generally to win tournaments. But it is not like I am on the top of the world but it feels nice as I managed to come back from a disastrous start.
RP: You were the defending Champion, how confident were you when you started in Waskaduwa and how did you approach your games?
AG: I think until round four I was quite confident, but a draw with Aakanksha and I started doubting myself because I thought like one more draw and it won’t be enough as I then have to score 5 out of 5. As the tie break was number of wins, 7.5 with three draws wouldn’t be good enough. So there was some pressure after this point, but also I felt some sort of relief because I knew I have to win all the games, there was not much choice.
RP: You have been a very consistent player, can you share with us some of your secrets to success?
AG: To be honest, I don’t consider myself as consistent. (laughs) Because seriously, I have my ups and downs. If you look at my rating graph it is not straight line, I gain and I also lose some at times. You can’t call someone who loses some 20 points in one tournament, consistent. You can call someone consistent who may be gaining less, but gaining all the time. That’s what I think.
RP: How do you train regularly? How much importance do you give to physical fitness?
AG: I think fitness is important. If we talk about Sri Lanka, I used to spend time swimming, playing table tennis, going to morning walks on the beach. I feel if you are doing all these exercises, any sort of physical activity, automatically your brain also relaxes.
When I am at home, usually I like to get up early, start working by 10-10.30. Take a break at lunch, then again work till 5-6, workout for an hour.
Generally I try to put in as much work as I can, even if I can’t follow a routine. I see that I put 5-6 hours of work in a day on Chess.
I normally work on my own, I have a permanent coach, you must be knowing Vishal. Sometimes we work together, he helps me once in a while.
RP: How is your relationship with Vishal Sareen?
AG: He is more like a brother to me than coach. You can say our relationship has changed over the years, first he was a coach when I was very young. I started with him when I was fifteen. It’s been like more than eleven years now, and now we are at such a stage that I can talk with him about various things in life.
RP: Coming to the topic of Indian Chess, what are the changes that you observed personally in the last ten years?
AG: The good thing that I have seen about Indian Chess is that, first of all we have many Grandmasters now. Then we have many young players, who have a lot of potential. So, it is nice to see that of course. Ten years ago this was different, now we have many upcoming players who can become GM’s and WGM’s, so it is a nice change.
RP: You have travelled a lot and played in many tournaments. Based on your international experience, what will be three things you would like to suggest to make Chess in India better?
AG: First of all we don’t have this concept of stars. I mean in any Sport you have a star and by that you attract all sort of money, players, you know. In Indian Chess I think we believe in mass. It is a good thing that we have many players who are strong, but it is also true that apart from Anand and Harikrishna no player has been able to cross the 2700 barrier.
It brings me to the next point. The reason behind that is that we don’t play enough against very strong opposition, we do play once in a while. But to develop, you have to play against them consistently. For that we should have more elite level tournaments or leagues.
In a way it also helps the whole Chess community because now we have one Anand right, if this plan goes on Harikrishna will become a more renowned personality in India. And see, any Sport gets popular because of one guy. In any field if you see, people follow that way. In Chess we only have Anand right now. If we get more personalities like that I am sure more sponsors will come, more players will come, more kids will take up Chess and all those things.
Then we should have at least one tournament, maybe like National Championships which should attract all big players.
RP: Moving on to the next question, which are some of the Chess books that you like and that have helped you to make progress?
AG: I really liked My System by Nimzowitsch, but that was 10-15 years ago. The last time I read it I was around 2400. It’s a book that you will like as a beginner, and there is something new to learn every time you come back to it.
Recently I read this Gelfand’s Positional Decision making in Chess and it left a deep impression on me. I finished it in one sitting, when I was travelling to some tournament. Also I liked Learn from the Legends by Marin.
RP: You have an amazing fighting spirit. How do you motivate yourself to keep giving your best?
AG: It is actually the other way around. Normally when I lose a game, it obviously affects me. But I have this attitude that it is not the end of the world. This thing, I think improves with experience. My attitude is that this is just a game.
RP: How do you handle defeats and such situations?
AG: Umm, let us talk about this particular tournament. When I drew with Aakanksha, I got really upset as I was even White, just out of mind and I was just not myself. I didn’t do much about it then, played table tennis, went for a swim, slept early. And yeah next day although it was not a very nice game I managed to win. Last three games I feel that I did not play so bad. First part was terrible, I was lucky to score 5/6. But last three games you can say that, I didn’t make any mistakes at least.
RP: So talking about your fighting spirit, do you think it comes naturally to you or it is something you have built up over years?
AG: I think I have built up over the years. For me every game is a new game, it doesn’t matter what has happened. When I won the Commonwealth, or generally if you could see from my facial expressions, I won’t be like too happy or all those things. Life goes on. I don’t get into pressure so much, even when I have to win the last game or all those things.
RP: Which was your most memorable moment of your career?
AG: Winning the World Juniors was definitely one of them. Also winning the Indian Championship meant a lot to me. And this year winning the Reykjavik Open also felt good, as there were many strong players and I crashed the field. So I will go for these three, in that order.
Apart from the tournaments, winning the Arjuna Award was very memorable for me.
RP: You have achieved a lot of milestones in your career. Looking ahead, what is your next personal goal?
AG: I would like to cross 2700 because I was close a couple of times like 2660-70. And somehow, okay you called me consistent but I feel I am not as consistent as I want to be. So this consistency part, I would like to be more consistent (laughs). Also I want to break in top 100. I am putting efforts, let’s see.
RP: What would be your message for upcoming players?
AG: Enjoy the game, you have to be passionate. You have to be passionate about playing Chess or anything you do in life. If you ask me, I am like if I don’t see Chess for one day I feel like I have wasted my day. So you have to find something in life you can’t live without and if Chess is that one thing, I am sure you will do well. And never lose hope, I have seen many people losing a game or playing bad in one tournament, they will lose hope and want to quit Chess. It has happened to me as well. But I am sure if you are passionate, if you love something you will definitely come back and it will actually make you stronger, as a person and as a player.
Blitzkrieg!
RP: Which according to you, is the best Chess game played so far?
AG: One of the recent game I saw is Carlsen – Kramnik, it was a blitz game I think, anti – Berlin where Carslen takes his king out.
(Edit: The game Carslen-Kramnik, Your Next Move GCT 2016)
RP: Besides Chess, what are your hobbies?
AG: Sports, I am a biggest sports enthusiast. Music, so mostly these two. And yes I do like to read too.
RP: Which Olympics Sports are you following keenly?
AG: Literally everything, like A to Z. I like to follow all sports, but it is also about the stars. I like to see Phelps swimming, Bolt running, such particular stars. I like to see Neymar playing for Brazil. And I also really like to watch our Indian players compete.
RP: Have you tried Pokemon Go?
AG: No, actually in my city it is not that active, we don’t have that many Pokemons. And on IOS you still can’t play officially you know. So yeah, I haven’t played yet but I have heard about the game and people playing it. I would love to try, but I simply can’t do right now (laughs).
RP: Movies which you can go back to again and again are…?
AG: Oh, Departed. Then Dark Knight, Chak De.
RP: Carlsen or Karjakin?
AG: Carlsen, any day.
RP: Okay and lastly, what do you liked to be called Abhijeet or Bhaiyyu?
AG: What’s there in name? As long as people are calling me, I don’t mind. (laughs)
Very nice