Vidit Gujrathi - Indian Chess Grandmaster

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi is an Indian chess grandmaster with Elo ratings over 2600 from FIDE.

Full Name: Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

Title: Grandmaster (2013)

International Master (2009)

FIDE Master (2005)

Place of birth: Nashik, Maharashtra India

Born: October 24, 1994

Federation: India

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Ratings

World ranking: 27

Rapid: 2617

Blitz: 2654

Classical: 2714

Profiles

Biography

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, born 24 October 1994, is a chess sportsman from India. In 2013, Vidit became the 30th Indian chess sportsman to achieve the title of Grandmaster. Before then, Vidit had been accorded the title of FIDE Master in 2005, and the title of International Master in 2009. Moreover, in 2009, Vidit clinched the Under-16 World Tournament only trailing Sethuraman P Sethuraman. At the 2015 Asian Continental Tournament, Vidit attained third place hence advancing him to compete in the 2015 World Cup, for which he was knocked out of the tournament in the initial leg by Lazaro Bruzon Batista-Cuban Grandmaster.

In addition, Vidit is the third highest ranked player in India, behind Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna, as of July 2022, and the 4th Indian player to have reached the Elo rating limit of 2700. Furthermore, Vidit is the third highest ranked player in India, trailing Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna, as of July 2022, and the fourth Indian player to have reached the Elo rating limit of 2700.

The Beginning

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi is the son of Santosh Gujrathi and Nikita Santosh Gujrathi and was born in Nashik. Attended Fravashi Academy for his childhood education and was trained in chess from a young age. In 2006, Vidit came 2nd in the U12 division at the Asian Youth Tournaments, earning the FIDE Master title.in 2008, Vidit earned the International Master title after winning the Velammal 45th National A Chess Championship in Chennai with a score of 7/13.

Achievements

Vidit became the first Indian to win the Under 14 World Youth Chess Tournament in the Open class in 2008. Vidit received his last norm for becoming an International Master by scoring 9 points out of a potential 11.

In 2009, Vidit came second in the Under-16 division of the World Youth Chess Tournament, tied on nine points with ultimate Indian victor S.P. Sethuraman. Vidit completed with a score of 8/11 in the 2011 World Junior Chess Tournament for Under-20 competitors in Chennai, earning his maiden Grandmaster norm. Vidit placed eighth out of eleven competitors in the 2011 Nagpur International Open, one point short of ultimate champion Ziaur Rahman. During the event, Vidit earned his 2nd Grandmaster norm. Vidit earned his last Grandmaster norm in the 8th round of the 2012 Rose Valley Kolkata Open Grandmasters’ championship when he was 18 years old.

Vidit became a bronze medalist in the Junior division at the World Junior Chess Tournament in Turkey in 2013. That same year, Vidit placed third in the Hyderabad International Grandmasters chess competition, receiving Rs 1.5. In addition, Vidit finished in the best ten in several other competitions, including the 2 008 Commonwealth Tournament. Vidit was taught by IM Anup Deshmukh, IM Roktim Bandopadhyay, and GM Alon Greenfeld of Israel over the years. Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte, who formerly trained Vidit, predicted in 2013 that Vidit may achieve an Elo rating of 2700 within 2-3 years. Kunte praised Vidit’s tactical awareness, contrasting him with Pentala Harikrishna – an Indian Chess Master.

Towards the end of 2019 (November), Vidit earned the chance to play against Magnus Carlsen- the World chess Victor, at the Tata Steel Chess India Blitz held in Kolkata. The tournament concluded with five movements. The tournament was by no surprise the shortest event Magnus Carlsen ever competed in his chess career. It even prompted Vidit when he was live on video together with Samay Raina and Tanmay Bhat to react to the game’s video.

As a surprise participant, Vidit contested in the 2019 Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz from November 22-26. Vidit tied for 8th place with compatriot entrant Pentala Harikrishna. The epitome of Vidit’s chess career happened in 2019 when he beat Vishwanath Anand- the World Victor on five occasions after previously facing him in 2018 and identifying his strongest and weakest points.

Vidit competed in the Skilling Open, the inaugural tournament of the 2020-2021 online Tournaments Chess Tour. Vidit captained India’s historic gold medal-triumphing squad at the 2020 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad. Vidit competed in the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix from February to March.

Vidit finished 2nd in Group C in the inaugural round, along with Daniil Dubov, with a score of 3 points out of 6. In the return fixture, Vidit ranked 2nd in Group C with a score of 3 points out of 6, placing him twelfth overall with 7 points.

Vidit competed in various notable tournaments including:

Under-14 World Championship-2018
Tata Steel’s Rivals-2018
Biel-2019
Junior World Championship-2013
The Dubai Open-2017
Junior World Championship-2014
Asian International-2019
Commonwealth Championship -2008
Open Hasselbacken Open-2016
Baku Olympiad-2016
Isle of Man Masters-2018
Gibraltar Masters-2016
Iceland Open-2017
The World Cup 2021
The Professional Chess League-2018

Most Recent Tournaments

Vidit has competed in chess games from 2006 to 2022, playing a total of 1144 games; achieving 415 wins, 520 draws, and 209 losses attaining a score of 59 percent. Among the recent tournaments, Vidit has participated in include:

the 4th Prague Masters 2022 – Czech Republic
FIDE Grand Prix 2 Pool C 2022 – Serbia
FIDE Grand Prix 1 Pool C 2022 – Germany, and
84th Tata Steel Masters 2022 – Netherlands.

In these particular games, Vidit played with both black and white pieces. Most openings played with white pieces include; Catalan, open-24 games, Queen’s Gambit Declined, 4.Nf3-23 games, Queen’s Gambit Declined semi-Slav, 5.e3-17 games, and Queen’s pawn game-16 games whereas he played with Black pieces in the following openings; Queen’s Gambit Declined, Ragozin variation-30 games, King’s pawn game -20 games, Caro-Kann defence -15 games, and Queen’s pawn game-12 games.

Achievements

The skipper of the gold medalist champions Indian team in the 2020 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad.
1st place in the Grandmaster competition at the 2019 Biel Chess Festival 2019.
Came second in the master’s event at the Prague Chess Festival in 2020.
2019 FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Tournament quarterfinalist.
With a score of 7 points out of 11, Vidit is ranked 12th out of 154 in the 2019 FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament.
FIDE World Cup quarter-finalist in 2021

Did you enjoy reading about Vidit Gujrathi? If you did, you might also be interested in reading about other players like Rey Enigma, Nikita Vitiugov, and Leinier Dominguez Perez.

Sources

Vidit Gujrathi – Indian Chess Grandmaster

Booot Chess Engine – Total Guide

10 Best Moroccan Chess Players From Morocco (FIDE Ranked)

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