US Chess National Championships / 2015 U.S. Junior Closed
lick of chess. In 2009, at nine years old, Chandra left the
States and relocated to India with his family for the next four years of his life. Somewhat of a culture shock, he describes his new surroundings as one without his American childhood passions of football and basketball—and one left seeking some competitive replacement. “In India, chess is an extremely popular sport—
I actually followed a friend of mine to go play my first chess lesson,” Chandra said. “I had never even realized there were chess lessons, I just thought it was a simple board game, something I played with my family on the weekends. I didn’t realize how much there is.” It was the spark to a passion, though he realized
early that he began chess with a handicap. Chandra’s otherwise promising start—a kickoff 1548 FIDE rating in January 2010—was humbled by a barrage of opponents who had a headstart, begin ning chess at a standard five years of age. But Chandra was also quick to figure out he needed proper guidance, realizing with his first coach that he needed to be pushed harder than the rest. “I started with a local coach in India for a few
months, but it became clear that something was not right—I was already skeptical of some things I was learning,” Chandra said. “In chess, it’s really
impor tant not to waste any time and make sure you’re studying from the beginning. If you start playing with amateurs, the amateurs just make carbon copies of themselves, and you end up learning wrong things and wrong ideas. “I realized once I got a professional coach how
much I had to relearn.” Suddenly, Chandra hit a new gear, working
with Serbian grandmaster and well-known Internet Chess Club Coach GM Predrag Trajkovic from 2009 through 2014. Perhaps focused on making up for lost time from his late start, Chandra has now leapt from 1548 FIDE with a near 950- point rating jump in less than five years, one of the fastest-recorded rating gains worldwide using a 15 K-factor. “I feel like (Trajkovic) gave me the right material
and helped me focus on the important stuff I had to learn at my level,” Chandra said. “I was able to absorb it quickly. I felt like I had a good understand - ing because he was a traditional grand master, he played Soviet-style in the 1980s and I like his feel for the game. It seems most kids these days are always going for the king, and they like to always attack and checkmate their opponent. But I feel, because of the work with my coach, I have developed more of a positional, technical style.” His rapid advance is perhaps best understood
by his capturing of the 2015 U.S. Junior crown this past July—during a streak of 27 games played over 30 days. After competing in the D.C. Interna- tional and 43rd Annual World Open, Chandra spent nine grueling rounds in St. Louis without a loss against America’s junior talent—then followed it up with another nine-round grand - master norm event across five days. Today, Chandra lingers at 2496 FIDE with two
earned grandmaster norms, and he now wears the U.S. Junior crown. With no cutting in line or catching anyone by surprise, he has arrived—and it’s his moment to walk through that door. And as it has been for his entire fast-moving career, his timing was impeccable: This year’s Junior crown came with a $6,000 first-place prize, both the highest-ever awarded at the event and Chandra’s highest single-tournament cash payout yet. More importantly, however, it came with that promised seat in the 2016 U.S. Championship— and the chance to play GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Wesley So all in the same event. “That is most definitely the main prize, not so
much about the cash but more that I’ve qualified to play against several of the world’s top-ten players next year. That’s going to be an incredible experi ence.”
The Champion annoTaTes SICILIAN DEFENSE,
TAIMANOV VARIATION (B49) IM Jeffery Xiong (2616) IM Akshat Chandra (2588)
U.S. Junior Closed Championship (7), St. Louis, Missouri (7), 07.13.2015
In the seventh round, I faced GM Jeffery Xiong
in the most anticipated match of the tournament, as we were the top two seeds. I had a ½-point lead over Jeffery at this point, and so it was crucial for me to hold my ground and not lose my grip on the tournament standings. Since I had the black pieces, I decided to play solidly and stick to my Taimanov. I wasn’t really sure, however, what Jeffery would play against the Taimanov as he had no games in the database against this line.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 3. c3 was what Jeffery had played in our
previous encounter. ½-½ (20) Xiong, J (2476)- Chandra, A (2459), Philadelphia, 2015.
3. ... cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6
The move 6. ... Nf6 was what I had played in
round five against FM Ruifeng Li. I decided not to repeat it considering that the opening ended in a fiasco for me in that game, as I got trapped in Ruifeng’s preparation after 7. Be2 a6 8. a3 Be7 9. f4 d6 10. g4 Nd7 11. g5 b5 12. Nxc6 Qxc6 13. Qd4
22 October 2015 | Chess Life
½-½ (48) Li, R (2394)-Chandra, A (2495), St. Louis, Missouri, 2015.
7. Be2 If White wants to start with 6. Be3, he should
follow up with the logical 7. Qd2. Similarly, if White starts with 6. Be2, he should follow up with the immediate 7. 0-0.
7. ... b5 In my opinion, this move reveals why the move
order with 6. Be3 and 7. Be2 is inaccurate. Black immediately makes the standard advance on the queenside, after which I believe he has already equalized.
8. Nxc6
White generally captures on c6 after Black plays an early ... b7-b5. 8. ... Qxc6
This is the point. Black makes use of the fact
that he hasn’t developed his knight to f6, after which ... Qxc6 would lose because of e4-e5 and Bf3, skewering the queen and a8-rook. Then 8. ... dxc6 is the standard recapture in such positions, but it’s been shown that these structures tend to favor White. After 9. f4 Bb7 10. 0-0 White’s noticeable advantage in development promises him a stable advantage.
9. Bf3 Bb7 10. e5 The alternative, 10. 0-0 is nothing special either,
as Black simply follows up with 10. ... Qc7. If White plays 11. Re1 hinting at Nd5 ideas, then 11. ... Bd6! followed by ... Nf6 is fine for Black.
10. ... Qc7 11. 0-0 The line 11. Bxb7 Qxb7 12. 0-0 is a bit more
precise as it does not allow Black the extra option of 11. ... Bxf3 followed by 12. ... Rc8, as played in the game. 12. ... Rc8 13. Qd3 f5! is the typical idea for Black in such positions, and after 14. exf6 e.p. Nxf6 15. Bd4 Be7 Black has no reason to complain.
11. ... Bxf3
11. ... Rc8 12. Bxb7 Qxb7 13. Qd3 transposes to 11. Bxb7 Qxb7 12. 0-0. 12. Qxf3 Rc8
Defending the e5-pawn will be a hassle for White now. 13. Rad1 I had forgotten what I prepared against this,
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