Smells like team spirit: At short Chess camp for Asian Games, lot of tactics, some fun, and lessons from Boris Gelfand | Chess News

Some of India’s top chess stars allowed themselves a brief break from training on Sunday to celebrate the birthday of Arjun Erigaisi. It was a small celebration, these days time is at a premium for India’s top chess talents: R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi, Erigaisi and Pentala Harikrishna.
But after the celebration, the players were back at work, cramming in some team work before they prepared to face off each other at the Tata Steel Chess India tournament, which started for them on Tuesday.
“Arjun’s birthday was a nice social event, for which we all came together. It had to be a bit short, but we had to keep it that way because of the very hectic schedules of players who have a lot of tournaments in general,” says coach of the team Srinath Narayanan.

The frantic schedules of players, coupled with how little time they spend in India these days, meant that they could squeeze in just a short window of five days to train together in Kolkata for the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou. After the strenuously long FIDE World Cup in Baku which lasted for nearly a month, many of the Indians flew to Dusseldorf to play in the FIDE World Rapid Team tournament. After that, they landed in Kolkata — most of them at least, with Pragg being required to travel even more, across the country for felicitations — where they held a quick camp before the start of the country’s biggest rapid and blitz tournament.
A photograph of a training session, posted Vidit Gujrathi on social media, shows the players flanked Srinath and Boris Gelfand, who has been invited the AICF to coach the youngsters just for the camp. (Vidit Gujrathi Twitter)
A photograph of a training session, posted Vidit Gujrathi on social media, shows the players flanked Srinath and Boris Gelfand, who has been invited the AICF to coach the youngsters just for the camp. What’s remarkable about the image is that there is just one laptop open, the one in front of Gelfand. The Indian youngsters — each raised in the internet era — has a chess board to figure out tactics on.
“These days, it’s very easy to double check everything with engines. But these guys are very curious to learn themselves over the board,” Gelfand told The Indian Express. “So we would have positions that I would check with engines to see if it was correct. They would do it over the board. And too often, it was correct. Maybe these players have had different mediums to learn aspects of the game than us, but they are as motivated and ambitious as us.”
The Soviet-born Israeli chess player, who famously challenged Viswanathan Anand for the world championship crown in 2012, currently helps the five-time world champion from India at the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy as a mentor and was invited the AICF last year for a camp for the Indian national team players. They invited him again this year.
“It’s not a permanent thing. The federation invited me. If they invite me again for more camps, I’ll be happy to visit,” he added.
Rivals working together for team cause
There is a unique dynamic at play: many of the players are friends, but are also rivals chasing the same limited spots at the top of the pyramid.
“There was good camaraderie especially among potential rivals, said Srinath who added: “There are aspects of chess which are common for everyone. And there’s no inter-personal rivalry involved. There are aspects of chess which are personal, which you want to keep to yourself. It was quite easy to interact and collaborate. They’re quite enthusiastic about playing as a team.”
“We worked mainly on middle game and endgames rather than openings. The main secrets of chess players are in opening preparations. So we didn’t work on openings. We looked at endgames and middlegames, so all of them can acquire useful knowledge and no tension will ex,” added Gelfand.
These days, the complexion of the national team has also changed, as captured perfectly Vidit on Monday during the drawing of lots for the Tata Steel event.
“I used to be the youngest player in national camps some time back. Now I am the second oldest,” Vidit said with a smile.
Srinath says that the enthusiasm shown the Indians at the short camp left Gelfand impressed, despite him having seen wave after wave of chess players over many generations.
Talking about the influence of Gelfand, Srinath said: “The things they are good at is more of sporting qualities related to chess. But the things that Boris has accumulated through his years of experience are some things that can save years of their time.”
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While India is sending a strong team to Hangzhou, teams like Uzbekan, Vietnam and Iran will pose a strong challenge. But the biggest names in the fray could be in the Chinese team, who could call on reigning world champion Ding Liren.
Srinath, who is the personal coach of Arjun, believes that these young players will look at the Asian Games as just another event.
“I’m not entirely sure if the enormity of the stage will sink in,” says Srinath. “But that’s a good thing. It won’t add to the pressure.”