Meet Harikrishnan A Ra, India’s 87th grandmaster

Harikrishnan smiles as he talks about his ‘quite crazy months’, as he has played seven tournaments outside India in a row now and will only return home after playing three more. He started this 10-tournament stretch at Dubai in the middle of May, then went to Croatia for a couple of events, before flying to Russia for the Asian League Teams Championship where he helped the Airports Authority of India Team claim bronze. Then there was a pitstop in Spain for another tournament where he earned his second norm, before earning this third norm at La Plagne in France.

His travels are far from over: he is already on his way to Spain for another tournament before going to Portugal.

While most other players take breaks between foreign trips to refresh themselves and regain mental strength, Harikrishnan prefers to go on a jet-setting tear of 9-10 tournaments at a stretch.

“This method doesn’t work for many people. But if I plan to play in just two or three tournaments, usually it’s going to be bad. Last year too, I played nine tournaments in a row. After four tournaments, I was not doing well. Then, in the final five, I improved my Elo rating to 2500. So bunching together tournaments usually works for me. For some reason, I get into my flow after four tournaments. This year too, after four tournaments, I got my two norms back-to-back,” Harikrishnan tells The Indian Express.

Focused approach

When he earned this third norm on Friday, one of the first calls Harikrishnan made was to his coach, GM Shyamsundar Mohanraj, who runs Chess Thulir in Chennai, and was also responsible for India getting its 86th GM, Srihari LR.

Usually, every time Harikrishnan sets off to play in a series of tournaments, he spells out a goal to his coach. It could be ‘I’ll only return after becoming a grandmaster’ or ‘I’ll return with a 2600 rating’.

So now that a seven-year-wait has ended, Shyamsundar wanted to know his ward’s plan. He was wondering if Harikrishnan would like to come home. Instead, the 24-year-old mentioned the next three tournaments he was preparing for.

“That made me very proud. He’s 24. Other players in his shoes might have felt that they have finally become a GM.’Chalo, ho gaya. Now time for a party.’ But not him. In fact, his next event starts in two days,” Shyamsundar told The Indian Express.

He paints a portrait of a guy who’s completely devoted to his craft, to the point that he swore off social media recently.

“He doesn’t have too many distractions. He doesn’t get carried away. So if we’re doing 10 to 12 camps of his rating level in a year, he used to be there in at least 90 percent of them,” the coach says.

Now that the final GM norm is achieved, the two have a new objective for the next three tournaments.

“I told him since you’ve become a GM, now you should try experimenting a little bit (with playing styles etc) and see how it goes,” said Shyamsundar.