Siddharth Jagadeesh completed the required three norms at the Sharjah Masters in the UAE, pending ratification by the International Chess Federation. - PHOTO: CHESSBASE INDIA via The Straits Times/ANN
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times): A huge relief washed over Siddharth Jagadeesh, 17, as two years of hard work came to fruition when he met the criteria to become Singapore’s sixth and youngest chess grandmaster on May 21.
He completed the required three norms at the Sharjah Masters in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), pending ratification by the International Chess Federation (Fide).
Siddharth needed only one point from his two remaining games at the UAE event, before beating world No. 34 Russian grandmaster Andrey Esipenko in Round 8 on May 21.
He said via ChessBase India: “I’m feeling very happy and very relieved because for the past couple of years I had to always think about norms and rating averages, but now I can just play chess.
“I wasn’t sure how Esipenko would play. I needed to make one point in two games, so I wasn’t sure whether I should play for a win or play safe.”
Calling the win against Esipenko his “best game ever”, Siddharth added: “Normally I don’t play such exciting games. I had lost the day before in a very unpleasant game (and was) completely outplayed by Abhimanyu Mishra.”
With a Fide performance rating of 2,508, the Grade 11 student of an online school had never beaten a player rated above 2,600 before the Sharjah Masters, where he had three wins, three draws and three losses.
He beat Hungarian grandmaster Tamas Banusz (2,623 rating) in Round 2 and India’s Abhijeet Gupta (2,601) in Round 6 before taking Esipenko’s (2,703) scalp. Siddharth lost to Uzbek grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov (2,684) in his final game on May 22.
Singapore have four other grandmasters – Wong Meng Kong, 60; Wu Shaobin, 55; Kevin Goh, 40; and Tin Jingyao, 23 – and one woman grandmaster, Gong Qianyun, 39.
Goh, who is also the chief executive officer of the Singapore Chess Federation (SCF), told The Straits Times on May 22 that Siddharth had been working towards this dream for many years.
“After he completed his international master title in 2022, he had been pushing for this next jump to the next level. Along the way he had many setbacks, encountered many challenges and could not get good results for almost a year and a half.
“I’m just very happy that finally this year he managed to make that next step, finding a new approach to playing the game.”
Goh also believes that Siddharth’s latest accomplishment would inspire children in Singapore to work towards achieving their dreams.
He said: “I think it reflects that it is very possible for young children in this country to be able to manage their passion as well as academics.
“Most families will not be so comfortable to allow their children to skip school, travel all around the world and pursue that dream which might eventually end up with no returns.”
Siddharth, who trains four to five times a week at the SCF, started playing chess in 2015 when he was introduced to the game by his father.
He achieved the Fide master rank in 2019, before attaining his international master rank in 2022.
Goh says that the next step for the teenager is to “work towards the SEA Games”.
He said: “Whether he intends to turn professional or not, it’s another question. We will not expect anything from the player.” - The Straits Times/ANN
