Nihal Sarin on finishing 2nd at chess.com Global Championships 2022 and winning US$100,000
650The highest prize money won by an Indian at a chess event is Vishy Anand. It doesn't come as a surprise, as Vishy Anand has won World Championships before. Who is the second highest Indian chess player? Nihal Sarin it is!
The young boy from Kerala took part at the chess.com Global Chess Championships 2022. It was an online event with 64 world class players taking part. It included Ding Liren, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Duda, Mamedyarov and even legends like Anand, Kramnik and others.
Nihal started as one of the 64 players and made a shaky start at the beginning. He was almost knocked out in round 1 against Mamedov. But he won it 3-2 in the Armageddon. After this he scored a confident 2.5-1.5 win over Vladimir Kramnik in round 2. In round 3 Nihal was up against world no.2 and World Championship finalist Ding Liren. One would imagine Ding to be a slight favourite against the 18-year-old youngster. You were in for a surprise as Nihal won 2.5-0.5 to seal the match and move to final 8.
The 8 players in the finals were to meet in an e-sports like environment in Toronto, Canada. It seems Nihal had some issues with his visa and hence could only travel to Belgrade. Chess.com set up a venue for him to play from there. Nihal began with Sam Sevian in the quarter finals. Now there were 8 games to play instead of 4. Nihal was trailing 2.5-1.5 after day 1 but came back admirably to score 2 wins on day 2 and closed the match with two draws and a score of 4.5-3.5.
In the semi-finals, the Indian bullet monster faced GM Anish Giri. It was an amazing bit of performance. While the players were neck to neck in 8 games, and the scores were tied 4-4, it was the Armageddon that determined the winner. Nihal won the white pieces and moved to the finals.
The finals against Wesley So was a well-contested one from the chess perspective. But Wesley was the stronger player and he won with a score of 4.5-1.5. With this Nihal ended his dream run at the Global Chess Championships and went back home with a massive US$100,000. This comes to a total of Rs.82 lakh! We do not know what will be cut via tax, but in any case this is a huge amount that Nihal has won.
It also goes to show that chess is growing and that very soon making a living as a chess player would be much more lucrative than before. A very positive sign for our sport. Today Nihal will be coming to ChessBase India for a livestream at 1 p.m. IST. We will discuss some of the critical moments of his games and also take some questions from the community post.
Video: ChessBase India
Thumbnail photo of Nihal by Maria Emelianova/chess.com
Timestamps :
0:00 - Hello and welcome
0:10 - Intro
1:32 - Nihal joins the stream
2:30 - Why Nihal did not play from Toronto
3:38 - Experience playing the tournament with provided equipment
7:30 - Nihal and Sagar discuss the match against Samuel Sevian
14:40 - Nihal shares his experience of traveling alone
15:10 - Discussion continues about the match against Samuel Sevian
32:55 - Discussion on the match against Anish Giri
1:07:12 - Game three against Wesley So where Nihal almost had a chance of winning
1:13:28 - Q&A session
#Chess #ChessBaseIndia #GlobalChampionships
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