Pentala Harikrishna is a Chess Grandmaster with over a 2500 Elo rating from FIDE.
Last Updated: August 4, 2022
Full Name: Pentala Harikrishna
Title: Grandmaster – GM (2001)
International Master – IM (2000)
Place of birth: Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
Born: May 10, 1986
Federation: India
Ratings
World ranking(active): 25
Rapid: 2624
Blitz: 2574
Classical: 2720
Profiles
Biography
Harikrishna was born on May 10, 1986, into an affluent Indian family in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Harikrishna gained interest in chess after seeing Vishy Anand’s triumph; his parents never anticipated that Harikrishna would in the future compete for the same squad as the Tiger from Madras. In 1996, Harikrishna triumphed at the World Under-10 Tournament and also 3 years afterward, in the Commonwealth Junior Tournament. Nigel Short, an English GM, and FIDE candidate in 1993 oversaw the youthful chess skills progress and frequently attended the Indian junior for coaching. Harikrishna, when 14, competed for the Indian national squad in the 2000 chess Olympiad, where he exceeded the requirements for grandmaster.
Soon after, Harikrishna was crowned India’s youngest GM even though his milestone was later surpassed by Parimarjan Negi and advanced from the Asian tournament for the 2002 FIDE elimination world tournament. In 2004, he clinched the international junior title as well as the Indian tournament. Within the same year, Harikrishna achieved the 2600 ELO point threshold. In 2005, Harikrishna started training with Anand’s old coach, Elizbar Ubilava. Having training sessions with an accomplished instructor helped India’s 2nd sportsman significantly enhance his performance and get him closer to the world top.
Harikrishna advanced to the 3rd round of the World Cup in 2005 when he was defeated by Alexey Dreev. In 2004, Pentala claimed the Asian team title with his team members, then went on to claim numerous Eastern team tournaments. Anand hardly participated in his senior squad after 2000, therefore Harikrishna and Sasikiran took over as captains. Even though the Indian team finished 3rd in the global team they still competed favorably without the global champion.
Harikrishna has a FIDE rating of 2720 as of July 2022 and a Peak rating of 2770 as of December 2016. Pentala Harikrishna has had impressive results in solo events in recent years. In 2015, Harikrishna clinched the PokerStars International Open. Harikrishna’s rating has topped 2750, and the Indian GM is routinely ranked as one of the globe’s greatest gamers. Harikrishna seemed composed alongside global title contenders in the super event in 2016 in Stavanger, where he was defeated by Kramnik and Carlsen however overcame Li Chao and Giri.
The Beginning
Harikrishna made his name in chess when he began competing in Junior tournaments. To begin with, Harikrishna emerged the victor in the Indian U8, U10, U14, U15, and U18 in 1993, 1995, 1999, and 1998 respectively. Harikrishna clinched the U10 World Tournament in 1996 as well as the U18 award in the 1999 Commonwealth Chess Tournament. when Harikrishna attained 14 years, he enrolled in the Indian Team to compete at the Chess Olympiad in 2000, achieving 6.5/11 points thus gaining an award of the GM norm.
Harikrishna earned both the second and third norm soon after achieving 6.5/13 points in Corus Group B (came fifth) and split 7th place in the Asian Individual Tournament with 7 points out of 12 rounds. The final norm Harikrishna earned advanced him to the 2002 FIDE World Chess Tournament but was eliminated in the initial round by Alexander Beliavsky and bagged the title of Grandmaster after attaining the needed FIDE rating of 2500 in July 2000.
As soon as Harikrishna clinched the 2001 Commonwealth Tournament in London, he achieved first place at the 2002 Hastings Chess Congress on a tiebreak including Alexei Barsov and Krishnan Sasikiran. At the British Tournament in 2003, Harikrishna split 2nd position with Vasilios Kotronias and Paul Motwani, thereafter split 1st place with Smbat Lputian, Vasily Yemelin, and Pavel Kotsur in Abu Dhabi. Harikrishna split 2nd place at the Sharjah Open, split 7th place at the Parsvanth Open, split 5th at the Tata Open, and 2nd at the Asian Zonal 3.1b Championship in Dhaka. In the rating list from January 2003 to October 2005, Harikrishna faced a progressive rise from 2539 to 2673, and in July 2004, he attained 2600.
The outcome of the 2004 FIDE World Chess Tournament played in Tripoli wasn’t good for Harikrisnha as he was eliminated in the 2nd round following quick tiebreaks (3-1) over Vasily Ivanchuk, nonetheless performed better at the Abu Dhabi Open and earned 4th position n tiebreaks a point half less of Dimitry Bocharov. At the Pune Super GM tournament, Harikrishna achieved 3rd place a point below champion Liviu- Dieter Nisipeanu. All the results Harikrishna achieved resulted in clinching the 2004 World Junior Chess Tournament in Kochi India attaining 10 points out of 13 rounds exceeding Zhao Jun and Tigran L Petrosian by a point.
In addition, Harikrishna earned call-ups to compete in fierce tournaments like Bermuda in 2005 due to his previous outstanding records. Despite being defeated in the 8th round, success in the final two rounds helped him to level with Boris Gelfand hence sharing 1st place, preceded with equal points at Dos Hermanas and 5th at HB Global Challenge on tiebreak. To up his results Harikrishna teamed up with Elizbar Ubilava, a former coach to Viswanathan Anand. Harikrishna clinched the Sanjin Hotel Cup by a point ahead with a score of 8.5 out of 11 rounds, shared 2nd place at the Mainz Ordiz Open, and achieved even performance at the Lausanne Masters, and cliched the 2005 Essent Crown Group Cup with 4 points out of 6 rounds. Harikrishna was eliminated in the 3rd round of the 2005 Chess World Cup by Alexei Dreev (2.5-1.5) after defeating Yu Shaoteng (3-1) and Giovanni Vescovi (4-2) in the first and second round respectively. Harikrishna shared 2nd place at Pamplona half a point less than Ruslan Ponomariov.
The Reykjavic open held in March 2006, had five competitors tying for first place for which Harikrishna came 5th place on tiebreak. In that tournament, Gabriel Sargissan emerged victorious followed by Ahmed Adly, Mamedyarov, and Igor-Alexander Nataf. Harikrishna competed in the 37th Chess Olympiad but did not get the best results (shared the last position) at the Aerosvit the following month. Harikrishna changed tactics and again earned a victory at Marx Gyorgy Memorial, clinched the Chess960 Junior Chess Tournament triumphing in the final four competitions over Arkadj Naiditsch with the last score of 4.5-3.5. In 2007 at the Aeroflot Open, Harikrishna did not achieve the best results as he scored 3.5/9, however, he pulled up and attained 3rd place at the Montreal International, defeated in the last round by Ivanchuk. Harikrishna was defeated by Ivanchuk with a score of two points less (3-1) in the last Carlos Torre Memorial and attained 4th place at the Reggio Emilia on a tiebreak.
Harikrishna dropped from contender to joint 7th at the Gibraltar Chess Congress in January 2009 however went on to win the Nancy Rapid tournament the following month, a point clear of Georg Meier. dropped 3 matches in a row at the 39th Bosna Championship, coming 5th out of 6 and with a score of 4 points out of 10 rounds. Harikrishna also struggled at the 200th Zurich Anniversary championship, placing tied 27th with a score of 6 points out of 9 rounds. Harikrishna finished tenth in the Open division of the Chigorin Open after straight sets and first in the Blitz category. Harikrishna ended the year by assisting India in winning the Asian Team Championship.
Furthermore, in 2014, Harikrishna clinched a silver medal at the 2014 Asian Blitz Tournament, bagged the 10th Edmonton International Tournament in 2015, and came 7th place in 2016 IMSA Elite Mind Games in China. In the 2020-2022 period, Harikrishna competed for India in the 2020 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad and helped India bag a gold medal together with Russia. Between February and March 2022, Harikrishna competed in the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix where he placed 23rd in the rankings with a score of two points.
Notable tournaments he recently competed in include;
- Sachy.cz Extraliga 2021-22 in the Czech Republic
- 4th Prague Masters 2022 in the Czech Republic
- Bundesliga 2021-22 in Germany
- Bundesliga 2021-22 in Germany
Achievements
In 2001, Harikrishna triumphed in the Commonwealth Chess Tournament played in London. Harikrishna became the winner of the 2004 World Junior Championship played in India. Besides, Harikrishna ranked first on the team board that became gold medalists at the Spanish Team Chess Tournament in 2005. During the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Harikrishna clinched a gold medal. Harikrishna also, became a silver medalist at the Four Nations Chess League in 2006 while playing for the Cuna de Dragones club. Further, Harikrishna earned a silver medal at the European Chess Club Cup in 2008 with the Baden-Baden club in Greece.
Harikrishna also earned a bronze medal in 2013 with Chess Club Kavala and was a victor at the Greek League in 2008 and also a bronze medal with Elara club in the Russian League in 2008. Harikrishna gained victory in the China Chess League in 2009 with Shanghai Chess Club. Aside from that, Harikrishna clinched a bronze medal in 2010 during the Asian Tournaments in Guangzhou and became a bronze medalist at the World Team Chess Tournament in 2010, played in Turkey. Harikrishna also bagged the 2011 Asian Individual Championship in Mashhad and became an individual gold medalist in the 2014 European Chess Club Cup in Spain. Harikrishna became a bronze medalist with Kavala Chess club at the Greek Team Tournament and a silver medalist at the Greek Chess Cup both in 2014. What’s more, emerged victorious with Instabul Technical University Chess Club in the 2014 Turkish Super League.
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Sources
- https://en.chessbase.com/post/people-and-personalities-photo-retrospect-part-two-
- https://chessbase.in/news/Interview_with_Pentala_Harikrishna
- http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99apr28/sports.htm#2
- http://theweekinchess.com/html/twic325.html
- http://en.chessbase.com/post/peter-svidler-wins-the-7th-gibtelecom-tournament-in-gibraltar
- http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5252
- http://en.chessbase.com/post/magnus-carlsen-wins-wijk-aan-zee-2010
- http://en.chessbase.com/post/tata-r13-karjakin-wang-score-carlsen-wins-wijk-by-1-points
- https://chessbase.in/news/Harikrishna_weds_Nadezda#:~:text=Harikrishna%20tied%20the%20knot%20with,play%20original%20and%20creative%20chess.&text=Just%20like%20his%20chess%20games,A%20wedding%20report.
- https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/culture-and-society/120820/winning-is-a-habit-dont-lose-it-says-grandmaster-pentala-harikrish.html